KATHMANDU, July 19: Rohit Gupta, 11, went missing On October 11, 2007. The seventh grade student at Rai School in Jorpati had left home at 5PM. At around 8:30 in the evening, Basudev Gupta [Rohit's father] received a phone call from an unknown number. The unknown individual on the call informed him that Rohit had been kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 250,000. They also threatened Basudev of killing his son if the ransom amount was not paid, and the incident was reported to the police.

Basudev paid the ransom to the kidnappers. Even after paying the ransom, his son was not released. Sadly, Rohit's dead body was found in a plastic sack thrown on a street near Kamaladi Ganeshthan, Kathmandu. His body was recovered by the police at around 8:30 in the evening on October 14.

Almost 13 years after the incident, police have been able to arrest the mastermind behind murder of the 11-year-old boy. Organizing a press meet in the capital on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) of Nepal Police made public Rajesh Kumar Gupta, 45, who was involved in kidnapping and murdering Rohit.

On Saturday, a special team of Nepal Police arrested Gupta, who was on the loose for more than 12 years, from Malangwa Municipality-8 in Sarlahi district. Rohit was Gupta's nephew.

Police investigation found that Gupta had called his nephew to his rented room at Khichapokhari saying that he would teach Rohit magic tricks. "Bishnu Sunar, a resident of Dhading district, helped Gupta in the crime," said Senior Superintendent of Police, Deepak Thapa, who heads the MPCD. The police have already arrested Sunar, and he is serving a jail term.

Gupta, during police interrogation, confessed to have killed his nephew. "After murdering the child, the kidnappers packed the dead body in a plastic sack, and assigned a laborer to throw the sack on the roadside," said police.

Police are preparing to present Gupta before the court today.

 
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