Lazimpat shooting case cracked

KATHMANDU, June 26: Udaya Sethi, a notorious Indian criminal serving a jail term in Nepal on a couple of high-profile abduction charges, has been identified as the mastermind behind the shooting incident at a manpower office in the capital last week. 



Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Sunday made public four persons who had carried out the shooting at Grand Sikhar Manpower Pvt Ltd as per a deal with Sethi who has lately been shifted to Jhumka jail in Sunsari district.[break]



Sethi had hatched the broad-daylight firing only to threaten Fahim Shah, the company owner, in a bid to extort a big amount of money from the latter.



"He had asked only to open fire at his office but not to take Shah´s life," the accused told CIB officials. The weapon used by two 19-year-old assailants who opened fire at the company´s Lazimpat office was also provided by Sethi himself.



Sethi was shifted to Jhumka jail some months ago from Nuwakot, reportedly due to his continued involvement in extortions even from the remote prison. CIB investigations have found that Sethi has been using the jail´s landline phone (025562377) and his personal cell phone (9752009138) to communicate with the accused while planning the attack.



The four arrested are Bil Bahadur Gurung, Gopi Ram Gururng, both 34, Ash Gurung and Deepak Pun, both 19, each with a different role in the execution of the attack. Sethi had assigned Bil Bahadur to carry out the assault on a deal worth Rs one million. He handed the work to Gopi Ram, a former Maoist activist associated with Tamu Mukti Morcha, who accepted it for Rs 1,50,000.



Gopi Ram in turn hired Ash and Deepak to shoot at the manpower office.



CIB had taken over the case as it was followed by some suspicious phone calls by one Santosh Sethi from Australia to a few capital-based crime journalists, taking responsibility of the incident. Santosh is an Indian criminal hiding in Australia, and he is considered to be a close aide of Udaya, CIB officials said.



Udaya, who had fled to Nepal a few years ago after he was involved in an extortion case in Mumbai, which was even linked to Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, has been accredited in the Nepali criminal world for introducing new modes in abductions. He rose to peak notoriety after kidnapping the sons of two businessmen and grossing around Rs million as ransom.

Related story

Caring for cracked heels