KATHMANDU: Ten days after the broad daylight murder of media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, Babbu “Deepak Shahi” and his accomplices continue to elude the police. The incident has come to question the police capacity to track down the dreaded criminals.

The incident coincided with the oath-taking ceremony of Vice President Paramananda Jha when there was a heavy presence of security

personnel. Jha was being administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Baran

Yadav when Shah was battling for his life at the TU Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, close to President’s Office. But the security personnel were virtually clueless about the shootout that occurred in the heart of the city and a busy thoroughfare. The police are yet to establish the motive behind the killing. The police, however, admitted that they failed to apprehend the shooter — an unidentified tall man in his 20s who looked like a Tarai-origin, who they said pulled the first trigger. They also failed to apprehend his accomplice - Mohammad Bakar Saiyed (Shooter Number Two) even as they assembled together close to Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) in Lainchaur for three hours before killing Shah.

SP Sher Bahadur Basnet, an investigating official at the Metropolitan Crime Police Division, said, “Babbu was in Kathmandu when the shootout occurred, but managed to elude the police and escaped from the Kalanki checkpoint.” Basnet did not give any details as to what prevented them from tracking down Babbu at Kalanki.

Babbu, Shooter Number One, Saiyed and three other accomplices had a secret meeting at Lainchaur for three hours before Shree Krishna Poudel, hailing from Kaule- 1 in Nuwakot helped Babbu to cross the Kalanki checkpoint.

A high-level police source claimed that Babbu, who hailed from Krishna Nagar in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, had already made his way to Indian soil and said they were doing groundwork to seek the help of southern neighbour to arrest him.

“We have the information that the shooters and other accomplices are holding up somewhere in and outside the Valley. Police are following the criminals,” he said, without revealing further details citing security reasons. The officials said that Prakash Chhetri, who is an SI of Nepal Police, had confessed his involvement after five days of interrogation.

“We’ve secured more information from Chhetri about the murder to reach a breakthrough,” he added. He is the only accomplice to fall in the trap of police. While, Seven other — Babbu, Shooter Number One, Saiyed, Rabin alias Guddu Singh, Dadu, Poudel, Raju Lama, Kishor Khadka are still at large. Of them, Babbu, Saiyed and Number One shooter are Indian nationals, police said.