Subedi couple’s murder: Organised gang’s hand suspected

Kathmandu, January 7:

Entrepreneurs today said an organised gang might have plotted the recent murder of a sawmill-owner and his wife in Sitapaila.

Meanwhile, Nepal Forest-Produced Woods’ Industry Entrepreneurs’ Association said it will close down all industries affiliated to it tomorrow to protest police laxity to identify and arrest the guilty. Two armed persons had stabbed the owner of Kantipur Sawmill, Natikaji Subedi, 50, and his wife Sanu, 45, to death at their home in Sitapaila on last Wednesday and critically injured his 15-year old son Bilab.

Bilab has been undergoing treatment at the Bir Hospital. He is in a critical condition.

“A group of two persons cannot plot and execute such a murder as police are suspecting. An organised group might have employed the two for the murder,” Uddhab Mainali, chairperson of the Nepal Forest-Produced Woods’ Industry Entrepreneurs’ Association, said at a press meet organised by four organisations, including the Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Surendra Bir Malakar, the NCC chairperson, said the entrepreneurs were feeling insecure. “How can police prevent and control crimes when criminals are equipped with arms and police patrol the city with sticks?” he asked.

He accused police of not being serious about controlling “rising incidents of crimes in the industrial sector ” Keshav Adhikari, a Superintendent of Police at the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Hanumandhoka, said Jay Kishan Rao, a worker of the Kantipur sawmill whom Natikaji Subedi had fired, was involved in the murder and attack on Bilab.

“Two persons were involved in the murder. We will identify the other person once we catch Rao,” he said, adding a search was on to nab him.