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‘Indian underworld don behind Shah’s killing’
KATHMANDU, FEB 08 -
The Indian underworld gang run by Chhota Rajan could be behind Sunday’s killing of media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, police said, adding that it was zeroing in on the killers and the mastermind behind the killing.
According to Superintendent of Police Ganesh K. C., chief of Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, the role of international criminals has been established and the killers will soon be nabbed.
“Shah’s murder has been carried out by someone from the Chhota Rajan gang,” K. C. told the Post. He said the phone calls made to Cable Television Association and Avenues TV on Monday and interrogations of more than a dozen people indicate that the
killers had arrived in Kathmandu on a ‘mission’ to kill Shah.
Bharat Nepali, an aide of Chhota Rajan, called the association and Avenues TV claimed responsibility for Shah’s killing, alleging that Shah was involved in anti-Indian activities. The call details obtained from Nepal Telecom and leads from people close to Shah and Yunus Ansari (who was arrested a few weeks ago for his alleged involvement in a fake Indian currency racket) pointed out the involvement of the Chhota Rajan group,
according to police.
Interestingly, it was Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhale, aka Chhota Rajan, who claimed responsibility for the killing of Mirza Dilshad Beg, a lawmaker, in Kathmandu in 1998. Rajan had offered similar reasons for the killing: Beg’s anti-Indian position.
Shah’s murder took place 13 months after police arrested Rajan’s three hitmen in Kathmandu. All three — Ganesh Shah alias ‘Tinku’, Anil Baniya alias ‘Vikky’ and Mukesh Kumar Yadav — were arrested in March. Police had disclosed then that they were planning to kill “some high-profile people.” The hitmen were arrested with sophisticated weapons.
Meanwhile, the government has formed a five-member judicial panel to probe Shah’s murder. Former justice Govinda Parajuli will lead the panel comprising representatives from Nepal Police, National Investigation Department, Office of Attorney General and a security expert. The Cabinet on Monday termed the killing serious and decided to deploy all resources to nab the culprits. Earlier in the morning, State Minister for Home Affairs Mohammad Rizwan Ansari summoned the three deputy chiefs of security agencies - Nepal Police, Armed Police and National Investigation Department - and directed them to expedite the investigation.
The agency chiefs are currently on a week-long China visit. In the House session on Monday, lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties slammed the government over the broad daylight murder and sought its response to the “sloppy security arrangement.”
Two more probe panels have been formed. Nepal Police has formed a taskforce led by DIG Rajendra Singh Bhandari. SSP Rana Bahadur Chand, SP Milan Basnet and DSPs Diwas Udas and Jagat Man Shrestha. Likewise, the Office of Metropolitan Police Commissioner has formed a five-member probe team led by SSP Madhav Nepal.
After the murder
Chhota Rajan aide owns up to killing
Lawmakers slam lax security
Minister seeks prompt probe
Three probe panels formed
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