KATHMANDU, June 30: Kaushal Kumar Yadav, a former lawmaker from Madhesh province, has been arrested in connection with a murder case.

Yadav was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Armed Police Force Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Thaman BK during the Madhes movement in 2015.

DSP Santulal Jaiswal, spokesperson for the District Police Office, Mahottari, confirmed that Yadav was apprehended from Samsi-5, Pokharibanda along the Postal Highway on Saturday and presented before the District Court Mahottari on Sunday.

Yadav, a leader of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), had been evading arrest for eight years. He was elected as a province assembly member from Mahottari-4 (A) in the 2017 elections from the then Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum. He was expelled from the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) before the 2022 elections and ran for office under the LSP but was defeated. Yadav remained a fugitive during the court proceedings.

Along with Yadav, the Mahottari District Court had sentenced LSP Madhesh Province Parliamentary Party leader Abhiram Sharma and six others to life imprisonment for the murder of ASI BK. However, CPN-UML House of Representatives member Laxmi Mahato Koiri and Pawan Kapar were acquitted in the case.

ASI Thaman BK was killed on September 11, 2015, during the Madhesh movement in Mahottari. A case of premeditated murder was registered against 28 individuals in the Mahottari District Court on August 3, 2018.