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Maoist nabbed in mega drug haul
KATHMANDU, AUG 08 -
In yet another crackdown on organised crime, police on Sunday netted Radheshyam Prasad Shah, a member of the UCPN (Maoist), with a huge cache of brown sugar worth over Rs. 2.5 million. Shah is reportedly a member of an international drug racket.
Acting on a tip-off, a special police squad deployed by the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) rounded up Shah, a Bara district cadre of the Maoist party, with one kilogramme of brown sugar from Pharping area on the outskirts of the Capital. Senior Superintendent of Police Rana Bahadur Chand at MPCD said that Shah was nabbed as he was coming to the Capital on a motorcycle with the contraband.
Preliminary investigation by the police indicates that Shah has long been into smuggling drugs. SSP Chand said that he could be a member of an organised drug racket based in India and Nepal.
Shah told investigators that he used to bring in the drugs from a conduit based in India’s Raxaul town and supply it to local drug users.
Shah admitted to the Post that he is a Bara district member of the Maoist since a decade. He, however, did not admit to being connected to any drug syndicate. Bara district police have confirmed he is an active Maoist cadre.
SSP Chand said further investigation is underway to unfold the mystery surrounding Shah’s connection with criminals and the Maoist party. Investigators suspect that he may have joined the drug syndicate to make quick money. This is the second instance within the past few weeks that the Metropolitan Police have unearthed the association of incumbent Maoist cadres in smuggling.
Kali Bahadur Kham, a Maoist central committee member and commander of the UCPN (Maoist) People’s Liberation Army’s Fifth Division in Rolpa, had hit the headlines after he was accused of masterminding the smuggling of medicinal herbs and looting of three Chinese traders on July 9. Police have held Kham’s henchmen while he is still on the run. During the same period, the Metropolitan Police also managed to get hold of over half a dozen former Maoist cadres involved in organised crime, including robbery and abduction.
Meanwhile, SSP Chand said MPCD has tightened surveillance at all entry points of the Valley after being tipped-off from intelligence source that criminals now are using alternative roads like the Pharping-Hetauda and Balaju-Trishuli sections to evade arrest.
Posted on: 2010-08-09 07:44
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