Rabindra Eidi, one of the arrested persons, is Commander of the Maoists People´s Liberation Army. Authorities have recovered PLA identity card from Eidi. He is Secretariat Member of Tharuwan Autonomous State of the Unified Communist party of Nepal (Maoist). However, his name has been mentioned as Bibash Kumar Eidi in the ID issued by lawmaker and Tharuwan Autonomous Province Coordinator of the Maoists, RC Chaudhari. [break]
Another arrested person, Bahadur Kunwar, is chairman of Darchula-Kathmandu Republican Forum. A resident of Pipalchouri-4, Darchula, he is advisory committee member of the Maoists district committee in Darchula. Both the arrested persons have admitted being Maoist cadres. They, however, claimed they have only worked as accomplishes of other people in the smuggling. "The sellers and buyers of the horns are absconding," said Eidi. He said main involved in the smuggling are two Indian nationals and a Nepali citizen.
Eidi was also possessing another ID card issued by Maoist PLA´s Lokesh Memorial Third Brigade, Gorunge. In this ID, his name is mentioned as Joint-Commander of Seventh Division of PLA, Birendra Bahadur Budha (Jivan). Eidi had been living in Bhim Dutta Municipality-7, Haldukhal.
Kunwar revealed that the Nepali involved in the smuggling is Lal Singh Dhami of Rapla village in Darchula district. The Indian nationals are Dinesh Duktal and Devraj Phulara, Kunwar said. "We worked just as transporter in their directions," he said. He also accused the police of failing to arrest the main accused involved in the case.
Eidi and Kunwar have been moved to District Police Office from the Reserve´s office Friday evening.
A team led by Darchula District Forest Officer Ramesh Chand had arrested the Maoist cadre duo from Rajdhani Guest House in Kanchanpur.
Following the arrest, there was a wrangling between the police and forest office staffs.
Kanchanpur police Chief Madhav Nepal had detained DFO Chand for four hours. At 10 p.m., he was handed over to Kanchanpur DFO Surya Kant Sigdel in the condition that he would appear in police office the next morning but he did not go there.
"The police chief has detained a government officer without any arrest warrant who was deployed for arresting the smugglers," said Chand.
Kanchanpur DFO Sigdel said the forest office staffs have felt unsafe following police´s harassment. "They have been demoralized," he said.
The police chief asked DFO Chand to come to his office at 10 a.m. but left the district for Haridwar early in the morning.
Kanchanpur´s Chief District Officer Him Nath Dawadi, however, defended police chief´s move. "Being involved in arrest of people without permission and coordination with local authority was illegal," he said.
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