Kathmandu, August 14 :

After the arrest of four persons, including the kingpin of a group that allegedly looted 18 financial institutions in the valley, the Valley Police is hoping to see a sharp decline in the number of robbery cases.

“We are quite sure that the Valley will witness a sharp decline in the number of organised looting cases,” Pitambar Adhikari, the Deputy Superintendent of Police at the Valley Crime Investigation Branch (VCIB), Hanumandhoka, said.

“As the gang headed by Rajan Limbu was the only organised group behind most of the looting cases, we believe that the number of such cases will decline considerably,” he added.

Police yesterday nabbed Rajan Limbu (28) of Sunsari, Bhakta Bahadur Lama (33) of Ramechhap and Sunil Thakuri (25) of Chitawan from Lalitpur while fleeing after looting cash and valuables from the Gun Cooperative Finance Office at Pulchowk. Another member of the gang, Bikram Thakuri, was held at night from Kathmandu.

During grilling, Limbu, alias Jay Subba Jwala, told the police that there are 15 men in his group. Two security men, Satish Bhujel and Shambhu Bhujel, and Krishna Joshi were arrested two weeks ago. They were also members of Limbu’s gang. Police said they have held seven gang members so far.

“I used to select a team of three to five men before making plans. I used to assign one plan to one team. I would never talk about the plan with all the members of the team,” Limbu, who topped Nepal Police’s most-wanted list, told the police. He admitted to looting 18 financial institutions so far in the Valley.

Police said Limbu’s gang was behind the looting of all financial institutions except the Chhetrapati branch of Nepal Bank Limited and the Jorpati branch of Nabil Bank. Probes revealed that financial institutions claimed 70 per cent more than the amount actually looted.

Limbu formed his group after he bought three pistols from Shambhu Gautam, alias Bhole baba.

Limbu had rented rooms in Kathmandu. His first wife Bedam Subba lives in Taplejung; the second, Chhoppa Sherpa, lives at Bouddha in Kathmandu; the third, Radhika Tamang and fourth, Shashila Baniya, lives at Dhobighat.