Kathmandu, January 13

Nepal Police has brought home a suspect involved in the murder of CPN-UML aligned Youth Federation Nepal’s Rupandehi president Durga Tiwari from Qatar today. Tiwari was murdered on December 19, 2016, in Khaireni.

National Central Bureau had requested the publication of an INTERPOL Red Notice to locate Tul Bahadur Sinjali to arrest and extradite him to Nepal.

Though Sinjali was nabbed by Qatar police in coordination with INREPOL last week, Nepal Police had to wait for some days to receive him. Officials said he had brought a pistol from India and gave it to a shooter to gun down Tiwari as told by Manoj Pun, the alleged mastermind of the crime, who is still at large and is said to be hiding in India. Pun is also said to be the prime accused in the murder of businessperson Basant Paudel in Rupandehi a couple of weeks ago.

A police official said Sinjali was held from Tribuvan International Airport after Qatar police deported him and informed Nepali authorities about it. Rupandehi District Court had issued an arrest warrant against him and the officials are preparing to turn him over to the concerned district to initiate legal action.

Sinjali had managed to flee to India after the murder before flying to Qatar to escape arrest.

Similarly, police have yet to arrest four others, including the shooter of Tiwari’s murder. Samirman Singh Basent, who was arrested last month in connection with the murder of Sharad Kumar Gauchan, had also worked in collusion with Pun, to kill Tiwari, said officials. Basnet and Pun’s gangs are notorious for extorting businesspersons.

Meanwhile, the Central Investigation Bureau has said it will soon initiate a massive crackdown on criminal gangs thriving on extortion. “The extortion racket operated by gangsters have instilled a sense of insecurity among businesspersons and the public in general. Therefore, we are making necessary preparations to act ruthlessly against the gangsters whoever and wherever they are. The frequent shootings and murders are being perpetrated by such extorters,” said a CIB official.

He also warned that the feud between criminal gangs involved in money lending and settling of disputes in the grassroots level had also given rise to insecurity. “Some gangsters are now remote-controlling their henchmen from elsewhere in the country and abroad,” he added.