Former DSP Chand presented at court

KATHMANDU: Police on Sunday  produced former DSP Jagadish Chand before Kathmandu District Court to request it to proceed with trial for his alleged link to an Indian underworld gang that murdered media entrepreneur Jamim Shah.

A special team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, which nabbed Chand from his house in New Baneshwor yesterday, had produced him before the court, seeking the trial of the accused.

Shri Prasad Sanjel, the court registrar, said the trial will begin tomorrow.

“The court has already received a murder charge filed by police against Chand. Police produced him before the court to let it know about his arrest. The trial will formally begin tomorrow,” Sanjel told The Himalayan Times.

Publicity-hungry police officials, who invite the media even when they arrest one accused of petty theft, did not organise a press conference to parade Chand, citing security reasons and ‘fear of his hostile statement to mediapersons’.

An Interpol Red Corner Notice was issued against Chand, 46, of Askot-8, Baitadi, for his arrest on December 29, 2010 for his alleged involvement in the February 7, 2010 murder of Shah, chairman of Spacetime Network Pvt Ltd in Lazimpat.

He was at large after police investigation showed he had collaborated with the mastermind and shooters in the incident.

Two motorcycle-borne masked gunmen had fired at Shah in broad daylight in Lazimpat. Chand is the fourth person to be arrested and prosecuted by police five years after Shah’s murder.

Earlier, police had arrested Kishor Khadka, Laxman Dhamala and Prakash Chhettri, then Sub-inspector at Nepal Police.

Chand’s latest photo released by MPCD today showed he had changed his appearance by shaving his moustache to appear different from the time of Shah’s murder.

A police source said he fled to India on the 17th day of the incident and used to shuttle between Nepal and India from time to time.

A source said Chand had provided information to Trilok Singh aka Babbu, a member of the Indian underworld gang led by Chhota Rajan, to execute the murder. Call detail records of Chand analysed by police had found he was in regular touch with Babbu before and after the murder. He had brought two Indian shooters with him to Kathmandu.

Shahi and the shooters from India and Shri Krishna Paudel of Nuwakot are among the suspects who are still absconding. He had also called Babloo Shrivastav, a close aide to Chhota Rajan and the mastermind behind the murder.

Mohamad Bakar Saiyed, an Indian national, drove the motorbike and an unnamed sharpshooter riding pillion gunned down Shah, according to police.

The report of a judicial probe panel led by former Justice Govinda Prasad Parajuli had also observed that Indian underworld racketeers, who were involved in Shah’s murder, were helped by former DSP Chand. According to an investigation report flashed by CIB, Babbu of Uttar Pradesh was a transnational criminal.