The number of criminal activities in the district started going up after the murder of Indian entrepreneur Bimal Jain on May 17.
SP Madhav Nepal, chief, District Police Office, Kanchanpur, said investigations had concluded that a group of Unified CPN-Maoist activists were involved in Jain´s murder. “The involvement of Maoist activists in the murder has made our work quite difficult,” Nepal added.
Accused in Jain´s murder case -- UCPN-M district committee member Tek Raj Joshi, Dhan Bahadur Rana and Ganesh Dhami - have already been sent to judicial custody. Dhami was a platoon commander in the PLA´s Seventh Division. He was sacked from the party on the day Jain was abducted.
Nepal said the accused trio had informed the police that other accused -- Yagya BK, Anubhav, Jeevan and Sangharsha -- had been taking shelter in the Seventh Division.
A few days later, an armed gang looted cash and valuables from the house of Dharanidhar Joshi, former chief of Siddhanath Science Campus, in Bhimdutta Municipality-3. The gang also injured his son Rupesh, who breathed his last while undergoing treatment in India three days later. Police have failed to make any arrest in the case.
“Following the incident, I left my home because of security reasons. How can we live surrounded by criminals?” he wondered.
Hajari Devi Singh, 42, was murdered after rape at a community forest in Jhalari on May 19. Following the incident, local women have stopped visiting the forest to collect fodder. The police have not made any arrest in this case either.
Two days later, an unidentified gang murdered Hansa Rokaya. The police are clueless in this case too. A few days later Janukadevi Upreti of Bhimdutta-4 was murdered at a local temple.
Meanwhile, District Police Office, Kanchanpur, has launched ´Special Police Campaign 2009´ to combat rising criminal activities in the district. The campaign showed immediate impact as the police succeeded in arresting Santosh Chand with his aide. Chand was on a most-wanted list of Kanchanpur Police. The police have filed seven different cases against him.
The police also succeeded in neutralizing a racket, which was planning to rob four banks in the district. The four-member team was led by Padam Raj Bhatta (35) of Sripur VDC-4. Two of them are said to be UCPN-M activists.
“The group was involved in scores of criminal activities in the district,” the police said.
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