Police have arrested five people in connection with a rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in the district.

Dipak Neupane, 20, of Telgha and four others were arrested on Tuesday after the victim’s family lodged a complaint against Neupane, a drug user, for his involvement in the crime. 

The girl’s body was found under a bush near the Holangdi stream on the border of Tansen Municipality and Telgha, police said. A doctor involved in the postmortem confirmed that the victim was raped and subsequently murdered. The incident took place at Prabhas on Monday evening while the victim was returning home from school. The local people searched the minor as her five-year-old brother, who was on his way to home with the victim, told his father that a man dragged her into the stream and committed the crime.  

The victim, a resident of Lamdanda in Tansen Municiapality, had been studying in grade three at Saraswati Secondary School in Prabhas about 1.5 km from her home. A security source said that Neupane admitted to his involvement in the crime during a police interrogation. Locals claimed Neupane committed the crime as the gold earrings was found in 

his possession.