Pinky Kumari Yadav, 14, of Sabaila Rural Municipality-1, Dhanusha, died under mysterious circumstances on Monday evening. Locals including her father Shatrughan Yadav tried to cremate her body around 2km away from home. The crowd including the family members suddenly dispersed when police reached the spot while the body was set on fire.

According to the family of the deceased, Pinky had committed suicide, hanging herself by her shawl. Although the family reports it as a case of suicide, police suspect an "unpredictable scenario hidden behind". In-charge of Sabaila Police Office, Sub-Inspector Birendra Kumar Yadav informed Republica that attempts were made to secretly cremate the body with some unknown objective. “Instead of reporting the incident to the police, it is suspicious of the family members to have cremated the body,” said Sub-Inspector Yadav.

“We were able to reach the cremation spot on the basis of information received from the neighbors. The incident turned even more suspicious after the crowd ran away when we reached the cremation spot,” added Yadav.

Police tried to dig deeper into the matter after a local informed them about Pinky's family being involved in "some kind of criminal activity." The body had already been set on fire when the police reached the spot. They sprinkled water on the burning corpse and were able to retrieve the remains of the more than half burnt body which was then immediately sent for a post-mortem at Janakpur Zonal Hospital. Police have taken Pinky's father Shatrughan Yadav, her mother, one of the locals, Hiralal Raut Gaderi, and Badrinath Yadav into custody for further interrogation.

The case is being investigated by a police team under the command of Inspector Uma Shankar Prasad Sah. “We are trying to untie the knot of the suspicious death of a 14-year-old. The investigation is underway. If we get a hint of any criminal activity, the culprit will face the music at the earliest possible,” said spokesperson for the District Police Office, DSP Rameshwar Karki.