Dang, July 12

Days after the body of abducted trader Raj Kumar Shrestha was found in a forest in Salyan, police found the body of Rana Bahadur Gharti, a contractor based in Hapur, Ghorahi Sub-metropolis. He was kidnapped along with Shrestha.

According to head constable Dewajjung Shah of Temporary Police Post Pokharidanda, Salyan, a police team found Gharti’s decomposed body in Kharsugaira forest in Jhimpe of Chhatreshwori Rural Municipality. The site where Gharti’s body was lying was around 150 metres away from where Shrestha’s body was retrieved earlier.

Police located Gharti’s body on the basis of the information provided by the arrested accused murderers, who had told the police that they had dumped his body 200 metres away from where Shrestha’s dead body was found.

District Police Office Dang Chief SP Dhiraj Pratap Singh said the body would be brought to Dang after conducting an  autopsy in Salyan.

The abductors had picked up Gharti while kidnapping Tulsipur-based trader Shrestha on June 9. Police, suspecting his abduction, had declared prize money of one lakh rupees to anyone providing information about Gharti. Now, upon the finding of the body, the arrested have revealed that Gharti was murdered well over an hour before Shrestha was killed.

Meanwhile, police have arrested the main accused and others involved in the crime.

Raj Kumar Shrestha, 53, a permanent resident and trader of Tulsipur Sub-metropolis, Dang, had been out of contact from June 9.

As per the police, a girl named Puja Shrestha had called him at 5:45pm on June 9 and had helped his abductors. Following the abduction, he had been taken to Melkhola of Kapurkot in Salyan. Police had found Shrestha’s vehicle and another Indian vehicle in vandalised condition at the site.