The body of a 23-year-old woman who had gone missing from her house on June 25 was found inside the Ghamile forest of Bhandara Piple on Sunday evening.

The site where the body was found is around three kilometres from her house in Piple Pragatipur of Rapti Municipality Ward No. 3.

On the day she went missing, the victim had called her sister, Kabita Bhandari.

“I missed her call. When I called her back, she told me she had been kidnapped,” said Bhandari. “I immediately informed the District Police Office in Chitwan about the phone call from my sister. But the police did not work seriously. They did not conduct a thorough search.”

According to the District Police Office in Chitwan, the body was found by some local residents in a decaying stage.

“The deceased was identified by the family members by her clothes. We will have to wait for the postmortem report to understand the circumstances of her death,” said Superintendent of Police in Chitwan Om Adhikari.

“Police have begun their investigation based on the family’s information that the victim was kidnapped and kept in a car,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Surya Thapa, who is also the information officer at the District Police Office. According to investigators, the victim’s cell phone was located near Kumaroj tower, south of her house.

“By tracking her phone, we searched for the victim soon after she went missing. The phone signal led us to the southern side of the forest. But the body was recovered from the northern side,” said Krishna Prasad Gaire, the victim’s neighbour.

Accusing the police of not investigating the incident seriously, the locals of Piple obstructed vehicular movement along the East-West Highway for a few hours on Monday.

“Police should make public the victims involved in the crime soon. One of our girls went missing 10 days ago and no action has been taken yet. Her body was discovered today and still, nothing has been done,” said Ahmad Khan, a local resident.

Transportation along the highway resumed on Monday evening after the authorities promised to arrest the guilty. According to Prabha Baral, mayor of Rapti Municipality, the body will be taken to Kathmandu for postmortem.

“A team of the Central Investigation Bureau, which arrived in the district six days ago, is also investigating the incident,” said Adhikari.

The 23-year-old had left her house at around 6am on June 25 to bring some vegetables from her friend’s house. The Bhandari family was scheduled to transplant paddy in their field that day.