Heera, 24, of Shikharbote-9, Kavre and Deepak Tamang, 22, of Madankudari VDC-5 were arrested along with two others while attempting to rob Binod Sunuwar, the owner of New Sobisha Jewelers at Gongabu-5. [break]
Heera reportedly was an assistant platoon commander at the PLA´s Jutpani Cantonment who deserted the camp with fellow platoon commander Deepak.
According to the police, they confessed to have planned buying weapons and extending the ´Bhayankar´ gang with the booty.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Deepak Thapa, chief of Metropolitan Police Circle Maharajgunj, said that the detainees, who said they had joined the UCPN (Maoist) a decade ago, were also being interrogated in connection with their suspected involvement in recent robberies in the capital.
This is the fourth instance within a few months that the Maharajgunj Police have found involvement of former and incumbent Maoist cadres in various organized crimes. They had arrested five disqualified combatants for attempted burglary three months ago.
Earlier, Bishnu Sah, 21, who served as a child combatant for six years during the insurgency, was arrested for masterminding a powerful car blast on June 8 at Basundhara.
Kali Bahadur Kham, the Maoist central committee member and commander of the PLA Fifth Division in Rolpa, made it to the headlines after he was accused of masterminding the robbery of three Chinese traders on July 9. Kham is at large since.
The ´Bhayankar´ gang could have had a substantial break had they pulled off the robbery, police said. The jewelry owner was attacked while he was about to return home in the evening carrying Nrs 600,000 and jewels worth as much. The looters were instantly cordoned and arrested by the police with the help of locals.
The police have extracted identity cards of both the commanders who claimed to have left the party ´due to financial exploitation´. “We just wanted to go out and live freely,” Heera and Deepak told the investigators.
“We decided to found a gang to make fast buck,” investigators quoted them as saying.
Related story
A troubling nexus between crime and politics
