Kathmandu, October 7:

TheYoung Communist League cadres today handed over two policemen and a taxi driver to the Metropolitan Police Circle, Baneshwor, for allegedly stealing wires laid for the operation of trolley buses at Babarmahal.

The YCL said its cadres caught the three while they were stealing the wires, laid for operation of the trolley buses, at Babarmahal on Friday night.

Those caught have been identified as policemen Dipak Karki and Prakash Lama and taxi driver Shishir Lama.

Hari Shrestha, president of the Trolley Bus Service Unit Committee, United Republican Workers’ Morcha Nepal, demanded action against the culprits. He threatened to take action against the three “if the authorities concerned do not punish them.”

DSP at the MPC Baneshwor, Gorakh Singh Bhandari, promised to suspend the cops and initiate further action. “The two police personnel have embarrassed the police force as a whole.”

Driver Lama said he was offered Rs 1,000 for taking the wires to a specified location. He did not elaborate.

Kapil Basnet, chief of the sub-station at the Trolley Bus Service Office, said only five trolley buses were in operation from Koteshwor to Tripureshwor before September 9.

The buses stopped operating after the Nepal Electricity Authority cut off power supply on September 9. He said, “What more can we expect from the security personnel when they begin looting the nation’s property?”

According to YCL cadres, 32,000 metres of wire laid for the operation of trolley buses between Koteshwor and Suryabinayak has been stolen since the trolley bus operation was terminated in 2058 BS.