One held for extortion attempt, security beefed up

Kathmandu, September 4

Police have arrested a person for allegedly attempting to extort money from a woman by issuing death threats.

A special team deployed from Kalimati-based Metropolitan Police Circle took Santosh Kandel, 27, into custody from Balaju yesterday.

A permanent resident of Dhading district, Kandel had sent a threatening letter to the woman in Syuchatar, Nagarjun Municipality-9, demanding two million rupees, police said.

Kandel threatened to plant a bomb in the woman’s house and kill her daughter if she did not provide the cash and informed the police about it.

“Come to the bridge in Balaju with two million ruppes in cash, on Tuesday at 1:00pm. If you didn’t turn up with the cash in the given place and time, I will plant a bomb in your house and kill your daughter,” police quoted from an excerpt of the letter sent to the woman.

After receiving the letter, the woman lodged a complaint with police. Acting on the complaint, a police team was deployed to the bridge in Balaju at the time given time and date mentioned in the letter, and arrested Kandel.

Officials said they had launched special security operation to crack down on extortion rackets. Police said they were working out to ascertain his involvement in other cases of extortion.

On Sunday, police had arrested three persons for allegedly threatening chiefs of various government offices of extortion, posing as cadres of Netra Bikram Chand (Biplav)-led Communist Party of Nepal, which was outlawed by the government.

The suspects were Bishwaraj Sharma, 42, Subash Koirala, 41, and Subham Ghimire, 24, of Jhapa.

A special team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division had held them from different places of Kathmandu valley.

Investigators said the gang issued death and bombing threats to the government officials as part of their extortion attempts.

A taxi driver was arrested with donation pad and literature of Biplav-led CPN from Sukedhara last week.

Officials said Bhabiraj Rai, 29, of Khotang was found possessing donation receipts and membership documents related to All Nepal Revolutionary Transport Workers Association, affiliated with Biplav-led Communist Party of Nepal.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs had warned general public, businesspersons and all organisations against extending any support or assistance, including donation, to the Bilav-led CPN.

“Any person or organisation found acting contrary to the government’s appeal and assisting the outfit will be treated on a par with the outlawed group and brought to book under the prevailing laws, read,” a press statement issued by the MoHA.

The ministry stated the CPN was behaving like a ‘terrorist’ outfit and appealed to all not to come under influence of threat, intimidation and inducement by the group.

The government has heightened security and crackdown on the CPN following its decision to ban its activities, on March 12.

Many cadres of the outfit have been arrested from various locations of Kathmandu valley.