Kathmandu, December 20

Police have arrested a person from Tokha Municipality-9 for abducting three children and taking them hostage to demand ransom, while rescuing the victims from his clutches unharmed.

The person taken into custody by Metropolitan Police Range is Binod Thapa Magar, 26, of Gorkha. Police said Ashish Sijapati, 24, of Kailali was the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping. He was arrested from Makwanpur in connection with similar offence on Tuesday. He was among five persons arrested for abducting Naresh Thapa Magar, 21, of Ramechhap.

According to police, Sijapati kidnapped a boy and two girls, all below 14 years, from Samakhushi, Kathmandu, on Monday when their mother left for Pokhara leaving them to fend for themselves for a few days. Sijapati, who was a close acquaintance of the family, lured them to Tokha-based Hotel Blue Star. He convinced the minors saying that their mother had told him to keep them in a hotel until she returned to Kathmandu.

Following the abduction and hostage-taking of the three children on Monday, Sijapati and his associates kidnapped Naresh and were arrested the next day. Police investigators said Sijapati had tasked Binod with the responsibility of locking the three children up in room number 404 of the hotel.

Three days after the abduction, Sijapati called their mother on phone and said that her children were under his control and demanded a ransom of Rs 300,000 for their safe release. The same day, she returned to Kathmandu, but found her rented room locked from outside.

The grieving mother alerted the police about the kidnapping. Acting on a tip-off, police carried out a massive search operation, leading to their rescue from the hotel room today.

Police said  Thapa had been booked for kidnapping and hostage-taking, while Sijapati was in custody of Makwanpur District Police Office in connection with the same charge. Metropolitan Police Range informed that further investigation into the case was under way.