Sheetal Tuladhar, 39, received a bullet in his upper neck while confronting the police team at Sailung Hotel in Thamel late Tuesday afternoon.[break]
He was admitted to TU Teaching Hospital and is said to be out of danger as the bullet had only brushed the upper part of the neck.
Tuladhar had kidnapped Karki from a Dohari restaurant at Thamel on Monday evening with the help of Kushal Shakya, 24, and Ashish Mukhiya, 23, both from Thamel. They had kept Karki captive in a room on the fifth floor of Sailung Hotel. Police nabbed Shakya and Mukhiya too.
Tuladhar had picked Karki, whom the former reportedly knew since long through his frequent visits to Singapore, in a bid to extort money. He took away USD 350 from Karki and thrashed him mercilessly. The abductors approached the brother of Karki, demanding a ransom of Rs 300,000, who in turn informed the police about the crime.
MPCD became aware of the incident at around 11 AM and its seven member special squad reached the spot at 3:30 PM. "As we entered the room, they started hurling beer bottles to drive us away. We struggled to take them under control," said a member of the squad. The single round fired by the squad commander directly hit Tuladhar.
"We were compelled to open fire as the kidnappers attacked us and made us difficult in our mission to rescue the hostage," said SSP Hemanta Malla, MPCD chief.
MPCD said a country-made pistol and two rounds of bullets were also seized from the kidnappers. "Tuladhar held the pistol and was just reaching for it when we shot at him," said a police officer involved in the raid.
Karki returned to Nepal three weeks ago and was to get back to Singapore on Wednesday afternoon.
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