BIRGUNJ, Jan 5: “Kundan Faujdar and I abducted Birendra Sah at around 4 p.m. from Umjan bazaar of Bara on October 4, 2007 following direction from Lal Bahadur Chaudhari. At 5 p.m., we handed him over to Chaudhari and his men near Sapahi bazaar. They left for the jungle with Sah. I returned home. I don’t know what happened after that.” [break]
Ram Ekwal Sahani, who is accused of murdering Sah, made this confession to local journalists at 11 a.m. Monday at the District Police Office. Bhaiyaram Sah was recording this statement in a movie camera that Sah used before his death.
“After that?” Bhaiyaram asked.
“I left for Chandigadh, Punjab five days later as the search for the abductors was intensified,” he said. “I lived there for one-and-a-half years. I returned only recently.”
Sahani said he was an active Maoist activist before Sah was killed. He added that he has not met any Maoist worker since then.
The 28-year-old said he was not even aware that Sah was a journalist. “They told me to abduct him stating that he was a man of the ‘Janatantrik’,” Sahani said. “I did the task thinking it was the party’s job.” He added that he returned home after growing tired of living undercover.
Police arrested Sahani Sunday evening from his house at Khopwa-8 in Bara. Police Inspector Abhaya Joshi said he was arrested at 11 p.m. following a tip off.
Three individuals, including Lal Bahadur Chaudhari and Kundan Faujdar, alleged to have been behind Sah’s killing are still at large.
Though Sahani said he did not kill Sah, Deputy Superintendent of Police Madhav Joshi said he might have been used as a shooter.
Sah, who filed stories for Avenues Television and Nepal FM, was killed immediately after being abducted by Maoist cadres. His body was exhumed a month after his killing.
Bhaiyaram, who entered journalism immediately after Birendra’s death, still uses his elder brother’s movie camera.
