KATHMANDU, JULY 7

Police have busted a racket of thieves, who were allegedly involved in burgling jewellery stores in Kathmandu valley, under the guise of scrap collectors.

Those taken into custody for legal action have been identified as Ganga Bahadur Tamang aka Sumit, 37, and Junga Bahadur Majhi aka Bikram, 49, of Udayapur and Buddha Bahadur Majhi, 45, of Mahottari.

Ganga Bahadur and Buddha Bahadur were held from Urlabari, Morang, while Junga Bahadur was arrested in Durbar Marg, Kathmandu, on Sunday. They were working as daily wage earners to cover up their crime.

Superintendent of Police Ishwor Karki, MPCD spokesperson said the gang members had been absconding after they broke into the Lazimpat-based Pabi Jewellers owned by Dilip Kumar Shrestha and made off with gold ornaments weighing 1,150 grams, 8.56 kilograms of silver and cash worth around Rs 8.58 million on March 1.

An official at MPCD said one of the gang members was already arrested and had been doing time in the Sundhara-based Central Jail. “We have managed to arrest four persons in connection with the burglary. Two Indian nationals are still at large and search operation is under way to nab them,” he said.

All of them were repeat offenders and had formed a gang inside the jail targeting jewellery shops after release.

Despite the arrest of four persons involved in the heist, police have yet to recover the property stolen from Pabi Jeweller.

According to MPCD, the gang used to visit different places of the valley during the day to identify easy targets, carrying bags under the pretext of collecting scrap materials and carried out burglary at night.

MPCD said it had launched further investigation to crack their nexus with other gangs.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 8, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.