Claim
Police arrested the perpetrator of Nirmala Panta rape and murder case.
Fact
The viral claim is misleading. Nepal Police have not been able to arrest the perpetrator of rape and murder of Nirmala Panta even after almost eight years.
A video claiming that the perpetrator of Nirmala Panta, a 13-year-old girl from Kanchanpur district of Nepal, who was found raped and murdered in a sugarcane field near her home on 27 July 2018, has been arrested is going viral on TikTok.
On July 26, 2018, Nirmala Panta, 13, a resident of Ultakham, Bhimdatta Municipality in Kanchanpur district, was found murdered after rape. Multiple committees formed by the Nepal government have failed to identify or arrest the killer of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta. Despite numerous investigations, including by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the case has remained unsolved.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @kingsherpa82 posted a video carrying an illustration of deceased Nirmala Panta along with a photo of a hand-cuffed suspect being arrested. The video also carries a photo of a Nepal Police officer being honoured with insignia. Text superimposed on the video reads, “The killer of Nirmala Panta has been arrested. Salute to Nepali police. Nirmala Panta’s murderer could not be arrested for so long, finally Nepal Police has been successful in arresting this criminal.”
The video posted on May 1 has garnered 2970 likes, 65 users have shared it 52 people have commented until the last count.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker searched for news reports regarding the arrest of the perpetrator involved in Panta’s rape and murder. However, we could not find any credible news report regarding the arrest of any suspect involved in the Nirmala Panta case.
Rather the search led us to a news article, dated March 25, 2026, about the formation of a 15-member probe committee including technicians to study the previous reports and investigate the rape and murder of Nirmala Panta.
However, the committee has not submitted any report of its investigation.
We then split the video into several key-frames and ran reverse searches on them. A reverse on the frame showing a masked and hand-cuffed perpetrator led us to several news articles carrying photos bearing resemblance to the masked and hand-cuffed suspect.
On checking an article, dated September 17, 2023, posted on Nepalkhabar online, we found that the photo showing a hand-cuffed suspect was Sanjaya Bhandari, the perpetrator of the Gairigaun murder case. Four people were murdered in Gairigaun on September 15, 2023 with the use of sharp weapons at Dibya Sawmill in Tinkune, Kathmandu.
We found another news article carrying a similar photo regarding the arrest of Gairigaun murder case. The article dated September 17, 2023, posted on Prashasan online, reported about the court order to put the accused in custody.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the photo showing a hand-cuffed arrestee is not related to Nirmala Panta rape case.
Conclusion
No, the perpetrator of Nirmala Panta rape and murder case has not been arrested. The viral video is edited by collating unrelated images to make the claim that the culprit of the almost eight-year-old case has been arrested. Thus, the claim is misleading.
Result: Misleading
Sources
Nepal Khabar, Sept 17, 2023
Khabarhub, Sept 17, 2023
Prsashan.com Sept 17, 2023
eKantipur, March 25, 2026
Nepal News, August 6, 2025
