At around 2:30 pm on Monday, a young woman sat quietly inside the legal section of the Valley Crime Investigation Office in Teku. She wore a black-and-white floral kurta, with a jacket marked “detained” draped over it. Officers moved in and out of the room, but she remained still, speaking little.

According to police records, this was not the first time Sapana Tamang had been in handcuffs.

“At first glance, no one would think she had been convicted of such serious crimes,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Khadka, chief of the office.

Sapana is 25 and serving a 25-year sentence for murder, kidnapping and robbery. Her latest arrest followed her escape from Sundhara Central Jail during last year’s Gen Z protests. Police say what began as an escape amid unrest later turned into a planned attempt to rebuild her life outside prison with the help of a man she met through jail connections.

Had the prison not been damaged during the unrest, she would have remained inside a secured cell. Instead, she is currently kept in a temporary facility in an under-construction building nearby after her rearrest within days.

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The case that defined her sentence dates back to December 5, 2020. Six-year-old Sumina Tamang was returning home from a primary school in Kalika Rural Municipality-1 in Rasuwa when she encountered Sapana Tamang on the way.

Investigators say Sapana, who had previously been involved in repeated theft cases, noticed the child's gold earrings and attempted to snatch them. A brief struggle followed.

“The child recognised her clearly, and she realised she could be identified,” said an investigator involved in the case. “She abducted the girl and later killed her, and hid the body in a cave covered with leaves near Nagurdung cliff in Palep of Kalika Rural Municipality-1.”

Before the murder case, Tamang had already been arrested three times for theft. In earlier incidents, she was released after returning stolen items or through settlements, as she was a minor at the time.

After repeated offences, she spent a year at a juvenile reform centre in Bhaktapur. She left the centre at 18. Before turning 19, she was arrested on charges of murdering the six-year-old girl.

She was initially held in pre-trial detention at Rasuwa prison and later transferred to the women’s block of Sundhara Central Jail on April 18, 2020.

Following the Gen Z protests last year, she escaped along with other inmates on September 9. She was rearrested nearly two months later in Dhunche, Rasuwa, after police acted on a tip-off and found her hiding in a house. At the time, authorities treated it as a routine escape amid mass jailbreaks during the unrest. But investigators now say she had already begun planning another breakout after returning to custody.

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Relationship formed inside prison

In legal terms, Sapana was a convicted prisoner serving a long sentence. Inside prison walls, however, a parallel life was taking shape that would eventually shape her escape.

She told investigators she had not initially planned to flee. She worked in a prison-run industry and earned a small income. The situation changed after she met Samir Shrestha, the son of Sita Thapa Shrestha, who is serving a sentence in connection with the 2009 church bombing case in Dhobighat, Kathmandu, which killed three Indian nationals and injured 13 others.

Samir’s mother was convicted as the mastermind behind the attack. Samir had been visiting the prison to deliver food to her and later began bringing raw materials for a pottery unit operating inside the jail.

It was through these visits that his interaction with Sapana increased.

“We used to talk regularly inside the prison, it felt normal,” Sapana told investigators. “After I got out during the Gen Z protests, our bond became stronger.”

Police say the relationship became central to what followed.

According to Sapana, she escaped in the early hours of May 17, around 1am, by stacking six crates of vegetables to climb out of an internal structure, crossing barbed wire fencing and then jumping from a wall about nine feet high. Prison authorities say the escape went unnoticed until the morning headcount.

“There are around 350 women inmates, and we did not realise she was missing during the night,” said jailer Krishna Chapagain. “Once it was discovered during the count, police were informed immediately.”

Police say a list of possible locations was drawn up soon after the escape report came in. Officers also noted that Samir had frequent contact with her during her imprisonment.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Anil Ghimire, who works on serious crime cases at Pillar-4, said suspicion quickly centred on him after Sapana was not found at her home. She was eventually arrested the next day from Samir’s room in Ason.

After her arrest, she told investigators that she had initially planned to escape with another foreign inmate.

“We had planned it together, but she backed out,” she said. “So I escaped alone.”

The foreign national has denied any role in the escape plan.

“If I had stayed in prison, I would have been around 50 when I came out,” she told police. “The sentence felt too long. I thought I had to escape at any cost.”

Police have also arrested Samir on charges of assisting her escape. Investigators say he has claimed the relationship developed only after the Gen Z protests. Officers describe him as inexperienced and unprepared for the situation he found himself in.

“He was moving around trying to find work while sheltering an escaped inmate,” one investigator said. “He even visited job agencies in Satdobato and Khumaltar looking for work.”

On the institutional side, the escape from a facility under round-the-clock security has triggered scrutiny of prison management and internal monitoring systems. The Valley Police Office, Ranipokhari, said it is preparing to form a committee to investigate possible lapses linked to the incident.