The police on Sunday made public the suspect in the April 20 murder of Nira Pandey Acharya in Kapan, Kathmandu.

A team from the Central Investigation Bureau of the Nepal Police on Saturday had arrested Binod Bishwakarma, 35, from Jhapa district, in connection with the killing of the 32-year-old Acharya of Saraswati Nagar, Kapan in Kathmandu. Acharya used to run a kitchen utensils shop named ‘Niru Kitchen’ in Kapan.

Preliminary investigation by police shows that the intent of killing the woman was to loot her. In his statement recorded by the police, Bishwakarma ‘admitted to killing’ Acharya.

The accused, a resident of Jhapa, was brought to Kathmandu on Sunday and was paraded at a press meet.

“He said that after Acharya retaliated when he tried to snatch a gold chain from her neck, and money, he stabbed her,” said Superintendent Sanjay Singh Thapa, who is also the spokesman of the Central Investigation Bureau.

One regular customer of Acharya's lodged a complaint at the Kapan Police Station after she was spotted inside her shop lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds on her body.

Police had rushed Acharya to the Maharajgunj-based Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

After committing the murder, Bishwakarma had reached the Manohra River, disposed of the knife and his outer dress in the water. Then he stayed in a friend's room in Lokanthali before leaving for his home in Mechinagar-4 Jhapa, according to spokesman Thapa.

Thapa said Bishwakarma, a martial artist, used to work as a bouncer in discos and casinos in Kathmandu. He had been jobless for a few months.

“Our investigation shows that he was addicted to gambling in casinos and was in a financial crisis,” said Thapa.

The case of Acharya's murder in broad daylight had remained a mystery as the police were not able to immediately hunt down the murderer.

Following the murder, there had been a protest by locals, activists and Acharya's relatives, demanding an investigation. On Saturday, on the 10th day of the incident, pointing at the inefficiency of the police in nabbing the culprit, the relatives of Acharya and some activists had marched from Maitighar to New Baneshwar.

Earlier, Acharya's relatives, locals and activists had also protested at Saraswati Nagar, Bauddha, Kapan and Chabahil, to pressure the police to nab the murderer.

Following widespread criticism of the police for the failure to arrest the murderer even after a week, on Friday, under the coordination of Additional Inspector General Kiran Bajracharya, who is also the chief of the CIB, a separate eight-member police team was formed to nail the murderer.