On Saturday morning, the body of 7-year-old Attika Sardar was found near a road by Durga Basic School, just 100 meters from her home in Morang’s Dhanpalathan Rural Municipality-5. The young girl had been raped and murdered, leaving her family and community in deep shock.
Police arrested Attika’s 22-year-old uncle, Anish Sardar, in connection with the crime. At first, he denied any involvement but later confessed, according to Morang District Police spokesperson, DSP Kopila Chudal. Anish is now under investigation for murder and rape charges.
Attika’s parents, daily laborers who travel to Biratnagar for work, left their children in the care of their grandmother and uncle. On Friday, Attika’s father, Akshay Sardar, went to Maniharighat in India for religious purposes, while her mother visited her own family. The children stayed at their grandmother’s house, where she runs a local liquor shop.
That evening, after dinner, Anish was tasked with watching Attika and her siblings. Police sources say Anish, who had been drinking, watched explicit videos on his phone late into the night. Around midnight, he allegedly took Attika outside, assaulted her, and silenced her when she screamed by choking her. Fearing the crime would be discovered, he killed her and left her body by the roadside between 2 and 3 a.m. Afterward, he washed and dried his clothes to cover his tracks.
The next morning, Attika’s grandmother noticed she was missing and alerted the village. Anish suggested she might have been kidnapped. By 4:30 a.m., her body was found near the school. Initially, villagers were skeptical of police suspicions toward Anish, as he was family. However, during questioning, his story unraveled. He gave conflicting accounts, at times crying and admitting fault, while also spinning tales that matched his own actions, like washing clothes after the crime.
Police have found scratches on Anish’s body, likely from Attika’s resistance, and marks on her face and neck. DSP Chudal says Anish appears mentally unstable and has expressed regret. While some family members struggle to accept his guilt, the police are continuing their investigation, confident in their preliminary findings that Anish raped and murdered his niece to hide his crime.
