The 320 cartons of stashed Royal Stag recover from the house of Laxmi Acharya at Tempo Park, Birendranagar-1, is worth Rs 2.5 million. [break]
Superintendent of Police (SP) Bishwaniranjan Pradhan informed that other goods such as glass, local cigarettes, cosmetic items, medicines and automobile parts were also hidden at Acharya´s house.
According to SP Pradhan, the truck (Na 3 Kha 2780) belonging to Dharmaraj Buda of Birendranagar left Birganj on January 2 loaded with 11 tons of goods. A search for the truck, which was laden with liquor, motor parts and other retail items, was begun after it failed to reach its destination in Dhangadhi even after four days.
“We started investigations after receiving a complaint about the lost truck. We succeeded in solving the lost truck mystery after we followed up on the engine and chassis number,” Pradhan said.
Police investigations found that four people in collusion with truck driver Balabhadra Khatri brought the truck to Surkhet to hide it. Police further informed that Khatri had received Rs 82,000 as fare for the liquor consignment to Dhangadi. As per the looters´ plans, Harihar Singh Thakuri of Kalikot and Dipendra Sijapati of Dailekh traveled to Birgunj in the truck.
They left for Dhangadhi after loading up the truck. When they reached Butawal, they changed truck´s registration number to NA 2 Kha 3529 and also changed the color of the truck.
“After that they took the goods to Surkhet instead of Dhangadi,” said SP Pradhan, adding that the truck contained goods worth Rs 6.2 million.
Police had already recovered and sent back the 27 cartoons of booze and 72 buckets of engine oil (Mobil) to Birgunj and the remaining goods were recovered on Sunday. All four involved including the driver are on the lam. According to police, Sijapati had rented a room in Acharya´s house to stash the goods.
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