Teen sisters found dead in Bhaktapur had come from Mumbai on their own, says police

The two teenage sisters who were found dead in Bode Sintiatar, Madhyapur Thimi-8, Bhaktapur, had come to Kathmandu on their own from Mumbai, according to police.

15-year-old Menuka Kandel and 13-year-old Sirjana Kandel were earlier suspected by their family to have been tricked or taken to Kathmandu by someone. But Bhaktapur District Police spokesperson DSP Dhundiraj Neupane said investigations show they came by themselves from Mumbai.

“We investigated from the angle that someone brought them from Mumbai, but it turns out they came on their own,” said DSP Neupane.

About three weeks ago, their parents reported them missing from Mira Bhayandar, Mumbai.

A few days later, both sisters were found dead, hanging in a rented room in Chakradhar Prajapati’s house in Sintiatar. They were found around 6:45 AM last Thursday on the ground floor of a two-story building made of bricks and iron.

Their family is originally from Panchapuri Municipality-8, Surkhet. The girls were found hanging with a nylon rope in the passage of their rented room. The rope was tied to an iron bar.

Before disappearing from Mumbai, they had messaged their mother saying they were going to Bangalore.

Their parents suspect someone made them work in a hotel. They had even appeared in an online TV interview in India, saying a hotel owner made the girls work in a place without CCTV cameras. This interview was published on July 21 (Shrawan 5), just three days before the girls were found dead.

Police say they have no official information about that claim.

According to police sources, the girls had been staying in that house for about 15 days. They told the landlord they were studying in college.

The bodies have been handed over to their family, and cremation has already been done. The postmortem was conducted at Kathmandu Medical College, but the report is still pending.

Police said if anything suspicious comes up in the report, they will investigate further. So far, no signs of foul play have been found in the initial investigation.