KATHMANDU, Jan 14: A police team from the District Police Office (DPO), Rupandehi, shot dead a murder convict during a crossfire with suspected smugglers at Siddharthanagar Municipality-10, Shankarpur, on Saturday night. 

The DPO, Rupandehi, informed Republica that Kedar Sahani, 40, of Siddharthanagar Municipality-6, was identified as the person shot dead during the shootout by his brother on Sunday evening. Sahani had been on the most wanted list of Nepal Police for five years after he was found involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Akash Gurung, 38, of the same municipality in 2014.  

Rupandehi DPO informed Republica that the police team started firing at the suspects after a police constable was shot in his right arm by the duo on a motorcycle. According to the police, Sahani breathed his last on Sunday morning during medical treatment at Bhim Hospital, Bhairahawa where he was rushed to after the crossfire. The injured police constable is being treated at the same hospital. 

According to the chief of Rupandehi DPO, Superintendent of Police (SP) Hridaya Thapa, the crossfire started after Sahani opened fire at a mobile unit of the district police patrolling the Shankarpur customs checking documents of the travelers in the border area. He added that the police team was on regular duty to check for thieves and smugglers illegally traveling through the border when they encountered Sahani. 

“Sahani and his associate did not slow down their motorcycle (UP 53 H 2028) at the police check,” he said, “Instead, they fired at the police unit, after which, the police unit too returned fire.” He added that some of Sahani's co-conspirators in the murder are currently serving jail sentences. Police are currently searching for Sahani's associate who fled the scene. 

In 2014, the decaying body of Akash Gurung, the operator of a manpower company in Bhairahawa, was found in a community forest in Bardaghat Municipality-10, after being abducted for 15 days. Gurung was identified through his clothes. The kidnappers had demanded Rs 10 million in ransom. 

A police team led by the then chief of Rupandehi DPO, SP Rajendra Dhakal, had killed Indian national Sahasran Khan, an accomplice in the murder of Akash Gurung in Rupandehi during an encounter in November 2014, a few months after the murder took place. His gang members had surrendered during the encounter while he tried to retaliate.  

Sahani along with seven other inmates had fled from Kapilvastu prison on January 15, 2010, where he was serving a jail sentence for illegal arms possession.  They were able to make their escape after secretly digging a three feet tunnel from a prison cell.

 
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