The incident, which both the adbuction perpetrators and the victim want to hust up in view of ´larger interests´, arises from a dispute between two factions over the division of spoils in a new smuggling venture, police said.[break]
The red sandalwood racket is said to have comprised three Maoists leaders named as Dipak Sapkota, Mausham and Deepak Shrestha. Mausham and Shrestha are reportedly senior YCL leaders based in the capital. Sapkota´s identity, investigative officials said, is yet to be verified completely as there are several possible angles concerning this name.
Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) has arrested the abduction perpetrator and victim--Krishna Shrestha, 29, and Netra Shrestha, 24, of Sindhupalchowk -- who happen to be uncle and nephew by family relation. Krishna and his group had reportedly held Netra captive Sunday at a hotel in the capital. Netra´s brother Asish, who lives in Britain, had informed MPCD about it.
As police started tracking down the abductors, matters took a dramatic turn. Netra was promptly set free. By the time Krishna was arrested on Monday, both sides had reached an understanding to hush up the whole case. "That Netra´s brother informed us was pure chance. He did so because he felt his brother´s life was under threat. The volte-face came about for fear of police intervening in the smuggling, as that could harm both sides," said an investigative official.
As both sides were bent on hiding the case, Kathmandu police has opted to book them only on a public offence charge in hopes of developing a separate case within 25 days concerning red sandalwood smuggling.
Officials said that Krishna´s group, which included three Maoists, had picked up Netra after the latter seized a huge bulk of red sandalwood in Chitwan and took it to Nawalparasi on Thursday. Netra was supposed to transport the consignment of over four tons worth around Rs 12.5 million from Chitwan to Kathmandu as per a deal with Krishna´s group, which was to smuggle it into Tibet.
The group´s last consignment was seized by police two months ago at Chautara, Sindhupalchwok district, and that set the racketeers back around Rs 30 million. Officials said, "Netra wanted a good share in the new deal as he had lost heavily when the earlier venture faltered. So he seized the consignment and started negotiating with Krishna".
"Krishna´s group in turn abducted him," officials said.
Krishna said during preliminary interrogations that Sapkota had directed him to capture Netra and get back the consignment.
Police have not yet been able to recover the consignment hidden by Netra at Kawasoti, Nawalparasi. "We will be able to build up the case once we recover the consignment," the officials also said.
The incident has taken place at a time when the UCPN (Maoist) has formed a high-level probe after mud-slinging between politburo member and Minister for Information and Communication Agni Sapkota and lawmaker Raj Kumar Shrestha regarding red sandalwood smuggling peaked during the standing committee meeting. Sapkota and Shrestha were both elected to the CA from Sindhupalchowk district.
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