- Media baron shot dead in broad daylight
- Police tap jailbirds for information
- Bike used in Shah´s murder found
- Jamim killers no longer in Nepal, says probe
According to police sources, Birendra Mandal, proprietor of Siddhi Auto Works, a second-hand bike trading firm at New Baneshwar, was held by the investigative team from police headquarters. Mandal was suspiciously found in possession of the entire file of the Transport Management Office (TMO) Kathmandu on the motorbike. [break]
Sources said that Mandal had given the motorbike to someone from Balkhu on Sunday morning, a few hours before Shah was shot dead at Lazimpat in broad daylight by two masked men riding that very same bike.
It is not yet known whether police have contacted the person who was said to have taken the motorbike, paying Mandal Rs 42,000. But sources say that that person, whose ID card was said to have been recovered from the Siddhi Auto Works showroom, could lead reliably to the uncovering of the criminals.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajendra Singh Bhandari, coordinator of the high-profile investigative team from police headquarters, declined to elaborate, citing the sensitiveness of the investigation.
Investigators are confounded how the entire TMO file on the bike fell into the hands of a private firm. Though ownership transfer of the motorbike took place twice in less than a month, there is no update about this in the TMO records.
Police had earlier said that the motorbike was found registered in the name of Miteri Saving and Cooperative Pvt Ltd., Lalitpur. But investigations on Wednesday revealed that the cooperative had transferred the ownership to its client Chandra Bahadur Aryal on January 19, who later sold the bike to Siddhi Auto Works on January 22. The only record found at TMO was the original receipt Aryal was given on January 13 after he applied for ownership transfer to Siddhi Auto Works.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Ganesh KC, chief of Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK), said that he was unaware of investigations about the motorbike. The motorbike was recovered in Phutung VDC-1 in Kathmandu by a MPRK team on Tuesday. Nepal Police has formed four different teams to investigate the murder.
Related story
Locals agitated after a person gets killed in Indian vehicle-mo...
