Four arrested in connection with murder of journalist made public in Hetauda

At the time, mystery surrounded as journalist and lecturer by profession, 42-year-old Manohar Dhakal who was found lying dead by the roadside at Bhairav Hill.

Organising a press meet today at Makawanpur District Police Office (DPO), police made public two persons arrested on the charge of murdering the journalist, and two others who reportedly bought the belongings of the murdered one from the murderers.

Police identified Anmol Pudasaini (19) of Hetauda Sub-metropolis-11 and Prabin Waiba (18) of Manahari Rural Municipality-1 as the murderers while Dinesh Thapa (31) of Bhimphedi Rural Municipality-6 and Narayan Sunar (48) of Hetauda-2 were identified as the buyer of the belongings of the journalist. Thapa had reportedly bought the mobile phone set while Sunar had gold ring that belonged to Dhakal.

According to police, on January 9, at around 5:30 pm, journalist Dhakal noticed two teenagers — Pudasaini and Waiba — smoking marijuana at Bhairav Hill. He talked to them and instructed them to go home and study. As Dhakal was about to leave the place on a motorcycle, the hallucinated teenagers reportedly pulled his bike and felled him on a stone and knocked him unconscious. Subsequently, they fumbled his pocket to find the wallet. Then, they took money out of the wallet and scattered other contents in it. They also took out his gold ring and a mobile phone set and fled the scene.

The journalists and mediapersons in Hetauda had urged the administration to carry out the fair investigation on the death of Dhakal.

Dhakal who was working as a lecturer and an active radio journalist is survived by his wife and a son.