Nepalgunj, November 1

Nepal Tarun Dal has said the arrest of its leader Sandipjung Shah in Banke was a premeditated attempt to tarnish his image.

Yesterday night, a team from Area Police Office of Kohalpur had arrested Shah, who is NTD Nepalgunj sub-metropolis president, along with Dinesh Kumar Shahi, 40, of Nepalgunj-10, Raghav Shah (Kanu), 54, and Madhav Nepali, 35, of Nepalgunj-12, Pritam Thapa, 35, of Nepalgunj-4 and Yam Bahadur Budha of Nepalgunj-20, for keeping weapons illegally.

In protest against the arrest, Nepal Tarun Dal  Banke today held a press conference in Nepalgunj and accused the police of deliberately targeting the organisation and its leaders.

“It’s pretty clear that the police are in a ploy to finish off the Tarun Dal and its leaders and cadres,” said NTD Banke chairperson Birendra Bahadur Shah.

Issuing a press statement at the conference, Nepal Tarun Dal Banke chair accused the police of setting up Shah by keeping the weapons in Shah’s car and demanded an investigation into the police action.

Speaking at the conference, Nepali Congress Banke president Kiran Koirala also blamed police, saying police have been trying to frame her party cadres in false cases since the past few months.

Nepal Tarun Dal Banke treasurer and construction entrepreneur Keshar Khadka shared a past incident when, according to him, Kohalpur DSP Hem Bahadur Shahi had demanded a goat from him during Dashain festival and had threatened to shoot him to death when the latter didn’t oblige.

“He asked for a goat citing the festival and when I refused to oblige, he threatened to kill me,” said Khadka, who also made public an audio record of the phone conversation he had with the DSP.

DSP Shahi couldn’t be contacted for comments. Province-5 DIG Suresh Bikram Shah disavowed any knowledge about the threat served by a police officer as has been accused.

“These days audio file could be faked by using different technologies. So we need to test the audio file in a laboratory in order to confirm its authenticity,” he said.

Further, the DIG said he would have investigated the issue if the victim had filed a complaint with the police. “Anyway, we’ll start our internal investigation,” he said.

Last night, police had arrested six persons including Shah with an automatic pistol and two rounds of bullets and its magazine.

The weapons were found hidden under the seat of a Maruti Suzuki car. Police have also seized the car.

A team led by DSP Hem Bahadur Shahi from Area Police Office Kohalpur had arrested them from Namaste Resort of Ganapur in Janaki Rural Municipality-6, acting on a tip-off that a few people were at the resort with some weapons.