BUTWAL, March 2: When persons who have committed crimes get out of jail, many expect them to develop a feeling of regret and strive to live in a better way. However, instead of repenting, many such people have been found to have returned to criminal ways.
On November 10, 2005, a local Buddhi Bhandari was killed while another person sustained severe injuries while retaliating against an ATM thief at Prabhu Money Transfer at Butwal-5. Police arrested Som Bahadur Ale on the charge of killing Bhandari. Ale was sent to jail for 10 years. He was released in June, 2016, from the Palpa jail.
Nobody had thought that Ale would return to crime even after spending 10 years in jail. But Ale soon got involved in looting and murders, including the killing of Durga Tiwari, the District Chairperson of Youth Association of Nepal (YAN), the youth wing of the ruling CPN-UML, as well as another YAN cadre Basanta Paudel, according to a recent police investigation.
A troubling nexus between crime and politics
The investigation shows that Ale was involved in gangster Manoj Pun's network, and committed murder and various other high-profile crimes.
In another case, Padam Chaudhary, 36, of Sunwal-7, Nawalparasi district, was jailed for nine years and was released from the Palpa jail on April 19, 2017. Despite spending nine years in jail, he continued criminal activities much to the surprise of the police personnel who had seen him improve in the jail.
Chaudhary continued his criminal journey in collaboration with Manoj Pun's right hand Ale. He was also involved in the murder of YAN's cadre Paudel and had taken Rs 230,000 for his role, police investigation has revealed.
Not just Ale and Chaudhary, there are many characters who have returned to criminal activities after being freed from jail.
Mahi Narayan Chaudhary of Dumraha-5, Sunsari, who was also involved in Paudel's murder, had also been jailed for various crimes. However, being in jail did not make him give up criminal activities and he started committing crimes soon after being released, police investigation shows.
Likewise, Niraj Gurung of Khairapur-9, Bardiya, Biswas Gurung of Butwal Sub-metropolis-8, Raju Gurung of Butwal Sub-metropolis-2, among others, have similar back-to-crime stories.
“Instead of repenting after being released from jail, many criminals have embraced their former ways of life. This is a dangerous trend,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Thapa, Chief of District Police Office (DPO), Bhairahawa.
