KAMAL PARIYAR

KATHMANDU, Oct 8: Two years ago when Rohit Lal Shrestha, originally from Thamel-29, Kathmandu, turned 32, he lost his mother to cancer. About a year ago he had to relinquish his house because of the road expansion drive in the capital city.

On Monday when he was about to go to hospital to visit his father, who was undergoing treatment for liver and kidney disease, Shrestha was arrested by a squad of plain clothes police from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division. The arrest follows a bank heist at the Thamel branch of Kist Bank, where he worked as a teller.


Kamal Pariyar/Republica
The Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Hanumandhoka makes public six persons arrested on the charge of robbing Rs 8 million from the Thamel branch of Kist Bank, on Tuesday. Among the arrested is alleged mastermind Rohit Lal Shrestha (third right), a teller at the bank.


Police later identified Shrestha as the mastermind in the bank robbery, which police surmised was an insider job to overcome his debts of about Rs 3.7 million. Shrestha planned the robbery about three months ago and persuaded five others to help him carry it out.

Shrestha first met with Laxman Adhikari, 28, of Gorkha District, and entrusted him and Rameshwor Paudel, 26, of Nuwakot with the external arranagements. According to the plan, Shrestha himself was responsible for furnishing a design of the bank letterhead and an identity card and security guard uniform.

The plan was for Prakash Nepali, 24, of Chitwan, dressed as a staffer from the Kalanki branch of the bank, and ex-Nepal Army serviceman Krishna Sejwal, 44, of Pyuthan, dressed as a G4 security guard, to proceed to the Thamel branch. Amrit Tamang Lama, 33, of Kavre was to look out for security.

Adhikari personated branch manager of the Kalanki branch, Gyanendra Khadka, and called up the branch manager at Thamel, asking the latter for Rs 8 million. Following confirmation, Nepali and Sejuwal reached the Thamel branch of the bank by taxi and met Shrestha, who had already prepared the money.

DSP Prajit KC, head of the investigation, said, “Shrestha asked Nepali for documents from the Kalanki branch.” After presenting the related documents and signing the receipt, Nepali and Sejuwal took the bag filled with the money and headed by taxi towards Banasthali. Adhikari and Lama followed the two by motorbike. The group later divided up the money.


When the management at the Thamel branch found that the money was not transferred to the Kalani branch, internal investigations were carried out but there were no leads at first.

“After we found several procedural lapses and suspicions arose over the bank staff, we carried out further investigations,” said SSP Bijaylal Kayastha, chief of Crime Division.

“Though we suspected Shrestha´s hand, we did not arrest him right away and waited for his links with the others to surface. To our surprise he got calls from Nepali and Adhikari from Delhi, where the two who had fled via Birgunj with their share of the loot,” Kayastha added. CCTV footage provided by the bank and call details helped the investigations, according to police.

They are yet to investigate if other staff from the bank were also involved in the heist, said SSP Kayastha.

Police have seized about Rs 6.5 million out of the total loot. Shrestha had taken the largest share and Lama had bought a motorbike with his share.

The six, who have been arrested from various localities, are being kept at Hanumandhoka for further investigations and will be charged under banking fraud, it is learnt.