- Related news: Missing doctor in Maoist captivity
Dr Shrestha is missing since May 18 when he drove out of Chitwan Hospital at Bharatpur in his car for his quarter at 10:15 pm after performing two surgeries in a row. The women who were operated by Dr Shrestha have been identified as Meena Neupane and Sharada Dhungel. [break]
"We are clear that he went missing after performing surgeries," said an investigative official.
Earlier, a civilian investigation team had demanded a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances leading to reported surgeries.
Investigative officials further said the probe is still concentrated on issues relating to three hospitals -- the Cancer Hospital, Narayani Community Hospital and Chitwan Hospital -- with which Dr Shrestha is prominently associated.
"We have been carrying microscopic investigation into several hospital issues which could have led to his abduction," the officials said on condition of anonymity. "We see that many factors like personal egos based on rivalry and financial differences contributed to his abduction."
Sources at police headquarters said the police are now convinced that the kidnappers are not criminals who kidnapped Dr Shrestha just for ransom. "After we could not resolve the case within 4-5 days, it transpired that the case is complicated; related to something more than money and committed by someone other than professional criminals."
The officials said they believe that Dr Shrestha is alive and that the kidnappers now want to wear the police away before finally staging some drama, releasing Dr Shrestha and trying to save their face by forcing him to say that he was not abducted by the Maoists.
High level investigative sources have analyzed that the formation of a probe panel and other measures adopted by the UCPN (Maoist) hint that the party now wants a safelanding to the case.
It has been confirmed through multiple sources that Dr Shrestha was abducted by the Maoists and is under their captivity. Dr Shrestha was abducted due to differences with party general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa and the former´s financial dealings with the party.
Dr Shrestha was appointed executive director by then Maoist-led government and has been associated with the party since insurgency. Only two months have remained of his tenure as ED of the hospital.
He also had differences with Thapa over hospital matters. Besides, Shrestha´s the differences with Thapa´s associate, who works in the same hospital, were also deepening.
Additional Inspector General (AIG) Prakash Kunwar, who heads the high-profile police investigation team, said the investigation is moving in a right direction but did not offer details due to ´the sensitivity of case´.
Meanwhile, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has said it has already deployed a team to verify the facts about Dr Bhakta Man Shrestha, who remains missing for the past few days.
"The Office has engaged with the Maoist leadership to verify information received from various sources and is coordinating the monitoring with the National Human Rights Commission", OHCHR-N Chief Richard Bennett told myrepublica.com.
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