Finding owner of $300,000 is key

KATHMANDU, Nov 20: Finding the real owner of US dollars 300,000 is virtually the only way the vexed looting case might be resolved, investigative officials say. [break]

• Police HQ takes up $300,000 case


• Police HQ steps up parallel probe
  
  Accused cops interrogated at HQ


• Fabrication felt in $300,000 case

The investigators arrived at this conclusion as the Nepal Police spoke again about the case, this time clearly defending its stance against Additional Inspector General Kalyan Kumar Timalsina, who was removed as Metropolitan Police Commissioner following a parallel investigation by headquarters.



"This is an initiative taken by the head of the organization and leaves no room for questioning the profile-compatibility of the investigation team," said Police Spokesman Bigyan Raj Sharma, on being asked whether an AIG could be duly investigated by a panel led by a deputy inspector general. Sharma added that the investigation has taken a right direction and would reach a conclusion soon.



Headquarters has raised its voice as the panel is said to have made some definitive leads in the investigation. A member of the panel said it was confirmed that the two cops had looted the money and the real owner is a Tibet-based businessman trading in illegal currency in Kathmandu.



"We are also clear that the cops have already transferred the money safely and thus show unnatural confidence in refuting allegations," said an investigative official working with the panel. According to him, a group of local businessmen lodged a complaint at Metropolitan Police Crime Division and claimed that the looting of the money was just a fabrication meant to mislead.



According to a senior investigator who sought anonymity, the main hurdle in the investigation is the lapse of time after the incident. "It is now easy neither to reconstruct the circumstances nor to search for the owner [of the money] who has been given no mention in previous goings-on."



Metropolitan Police Commissioner´s Office (MPCO), then led by AIG Timalsina, had nabbed two constables nearly two weeks after they allegedly robbed the money from the businessman in collusion with the latter´s driver. MPCO itself kept them in clandestine detention, though the case does not come under its jurisdiction, before the headquarters made its move.

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