Inspector found involved in Gupta’s plot
KATHMANDU, Sept 7: The arrest of former minister and Sadbhawana Party leader Shyam Sundar Gupta on Monday on a charge of threatening abduction has resulted in the detention of the complainant and suspension of a police inspector.
Based on a complaints registered by the victim woman who was identified as Tara Regmi, the Metropolitan Police Range office, Jawalakhel arrested Gupta and remanded him to four days in custody for investigations. Gupta is accused of threatening to abduct Regmi after she refused to pay him Rs 5 million. Regmi is the second wife of former DIG Ranjan Koirala of the Armed Police Force (APF).
After intensive investigations, Koirala had been found to have murdered his first wife at his Posikot residence in Kathmandu. Koirala, who had later taken her body to Makawanpur and buried it, was caught while returning home. On 2014, the government decided to sack Koirala and disqualify him from working for the government in future, as per the court ruling.
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“Regmi repeatedly named a policeman receiving Rs 75,000 from her in order to solve an unsettled case pending against her in court,” said the SSP Pitambar Adhikari, chief of Metropolitan Police Range Office, Jawalakhel. During investigations it was revealed that Regmi, whom former minister Gupta threatened to kidnap, was also an accused in the murder of Gita Dhakal, former DIG Koirala’s first wife.
Regmi, 42, had run into Gupta while meeting Koirala at Dilli Bazar prison. “Noticing how complicated the case against Regmi was and how she was well-off enough to pay him a hefty amount if he helped resolve her case, Gupta devised a plan to collect money by threatening her,” SSP Adhikari explained.
After the District Court Kathmandu on 20th April, 2014 convicted Regmi for her involvement in provoking Koirala to murder his first wife, regmi had been at large.
Gupta, who had been closely studying the case while in prison and also after his release, started following Regmi since the last three months.
“He started bargaining with her, starting with a demand for Rs 1 million and later hiking it to Rs 5 million,. He started to threaten her with kidnapping and also enquiring with her daughter about her,” police said. “After finding herself and her daughter under threat of kidnap by Gupta, the woman decided to seek police help,” SSP Adhikari said.
In the meantime, Gupta engaged Police Inspector Anil Pandit, who headed the Metropolitan Police Sector Office, Bungmati at Bhaisepati. Gupta and Pandit had meet at Dillibazar prison while the latter was deployed on prison security as an assistant sub-inspector.
Pandit was found to have received Rs 75,000 from Regmi in a deal they had struck. Police have been investigating Pandit after suspending him . Regmi, meanwhile, was presented before the District Court Kathmandu and sent to prison as per the judgment execution program, SSP Adhikari further informed.
Police have also been intensifying their investigations into Gupta while keeping him in custody. Gupta had earlier served three and half years in jail for masterminding the abduction of businessman Pawan Sanghai.
Sanghai, the proprietor of Arya Pharmaceuticals, had been kidnapped from Kamaladi in 2011 and released after his family paid a ransom of Rs 8.5 million. Sanghai is also on the wanted list now for his alleged involvement in illegally producing pharmaceutical drugs.
While serving jail time, Gupta also made an escape plan with the involvement of his son, mixing poison in the food and drinks provided to personnel deployed for his security.
