E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, FEB 17 - Former Armed Police Force Deputy Inspector General Gyanendra Rai said on Tuesday that he didn’t know the killer of media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, Deepak Shahi alias Babbu, had rented out his house.

Shah was murdered on Jan. 7 by two sharpshooters. Officials involved in the investigation said that one of the partners in the crime was Babbu, who along with his friends had rented Rai’s house presenting himself as a herb trader from Nepalgunj.

Rai on Tuesday told reporters that an agent namely Keshar in the last week of October brought Babbu and his friends and that his wife, Anuradha, had rented out the flat in good faith thinking there was no harm in renting the apartment to a ‘businessman’. 

“They left the house in the second week of January and I was completely unaware of my tenants’ activities. My wife also never inquired about their business,” Rai said.

The former police official said he met Babbu only once during their stay in his house. “It happened only when they were planning to leave the flat. Babbu came and told me that his business was in the doldrums as one of his partners was caught in Indonesia for evading taxes. He told me he could not afford the flat.”

Investigators said Babbu would disappear from the flat at times but other gangsters, including sharpshooter Mohammad Bakar Saiyad, used to stay there.

He even recounted that once Saiyad gave laddoos (sweets) to Anuradha saying he had become a follower of Hanuman.

“Media reports have tarnished my image by presenting me as involved in the murder,” added Rai. “I am hardly involved in my household affairs like renting flats and others, as I am mostly engrossed in my business affairs. I have been victimised.”

Police official-turned-businessman Rai tried to present his clean image saying, “I am ready to face any action if anyone proves my involvement in the plan.”

Shah’s murder case has been one of the high-profile assassinations in the country. Investigators have said that murder plot was hatched by underworld criminal Babloo Shirvastav, who is currently in a Lucknow jail, and that a number of Nepali and Indian nationals were accomplice in the crime. However, the police have not been able to find a lead to the motive behind the murder.

Shah was murdered in broad daylight by two persons on a motorcycle.

Posted on: 2010-02-17 11:12

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