Khyati's murderer, accomplice get life

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Nov 19: Kathmandu District Court (KDC) on Friday slapped a life term with confiscation of property on Biren Shrestha and a life term on his accomplice Merina Shakya, after convicting them of Khyati Shrestha´s murder.

The bench of Judge Balendra Rupakheti issued the verdict convicting Shrestha and Shakya on three separate charges in connection with Khyati´s murder.

The court has sentenced Shrestha to life imprisonment with confiscation of property on the murder charge and also sentenced him to another 15 years´ imprisonment on the charge of kidnapping Khyati.

The bench has likewise slapped two years´ imprisonment on Shrestha for the kidnapping of a woman and another two years for collusion in murder.
In total, Shrestha has received a life imprisonment with property confiscation on the murder charge and a total 19 years´ imprisonment on three other counts.

Shrestha´s accomplice Shakya has been sentenced to life imprisonment on the murder charge along with a 10-year sentence on the kidnap charge.
Shakya will also face two years´ imprisonment for collusion in crime and an additional two years for kidnapping a woman.

The court, however, did not slap property confiscation on Shakya.

Police had recovered Khyati Shrestha´s body in a stream at Sainbu VDC, Lalitpur district, 17 days after her abduction on June 21, 2009.

The slain teenage girl was the only child of Gopal Shrestha, who was living at Ghattekulo in a rented apartment. She had been invited by Shakya to collect a prize.

While Biren Shrestha is a former science teacher at Adarsha Vidya Mandir (AVM) school at Manbhawan, Lalitpur, Shakya is a student at the same school.

Shrestha had resigned from his job on April 22, 2009, after serving the school for 14 years. Even though Shrestha claims to have been born at Maitidevi, police have recovered his ration card and other identity documents of Darjeeling, India.

Investigations had shown that Shakya was involved in calling Khyati over the phone and picking her up and taking her to Shrestha´s rented apartment at Khusibu.

Main accused Biren is found to have asked Shakya to bring Khyati to his apartment for an interview, telling her that she had won Rs 20,000 in cash and a free trip to Pokhara on behalf of a magazine.

The kidnapper later asked the family for ransom through SMS to the cell phone of a youth who had dropped Khyati at Putalisadak.

Khyati´s family was initially indecisive about paying the ransom, but later decided to pay out of concern for the safety of their only child. The kidnapper first asked the family to come with the ransom to Butwal, and then successively to Chitwan, Sunauli, Darjeeling and finally Kakarbhitta.

Khyati´s mother Radha and her domestic help Ram had reached Kakarbhitta to hand over the ransom amount.

Related news:

* Police recover Khyati´s head
* Khyati murder: Accused revealed
* Girl´s body found 17 days after her kidnapping