Kali Bahadur Kham, the division commander of the then CPN (Maoist) that waged a decade-long armed insurgency in Nepal, has been arrested in Kathmandu.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Kathmandu District Police Range Office apprehended Kham from Thamel area on Tuesday afternoon, said SP Navaraj Adhikari, the spokesperson of the Range Office.
Kham, who was allegedly involved in the murder of businessman Ram Hari Shrestha, had been absconding for the past 15 years.
A writ petition filed against Kham for his involvement in the murder of Shrestha is sub-judice in the Supreme Court. Originally from Ramechhap, Shrestha was doing a business at Koteshwar during that period.
The 3rd Division of the Maoist Combatants had set up a liaison office in the house of Ram Hari in Koteshwar after the then Maoist rebels joined the peace process. On March 27, 2008, Rs 1.7 million in cash along with a pistol had been lost from the liaison office.
On April 27, 2008, Shrestha was taken to the then Maoist Cantonment Site-3 at Shaktikhor in Chitwan. The body of Shrestha, who was reportedly beaten brutally while in captivity, was found in the Narayanni River on May 10.
A team of Maoist combatants including Govinda Bahadur Batala, Keshav Adhikari, Gangaram Thapa, Arjun Karki allegedly whisked businessman Shrestha to Shaktikhor for investigation into the stolen case. Thapa was the bodyguard of Kham during that period.
Even though the district court and high court found Batala guilty in the murder case of Ram Hari Shrestha, he got a clean chit from the Supreme Court.
Kham, who landed in the police net 15 years being accused in the murder case, will be produced in the District Court, Chitwan.
