BASANT SHARMA

KATHMANDU: While investigating a January 10 Mulpani robbery case, police have found that the gang involved in this particular case was behind a series of robberies reported in the Kathmandu Valley of late.

According to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, the group behind the Mulpani incident had robbed a house at Duwakot in Bhaktapur the same night. According to police, the gang was also behind the January 8 robbery at the house of Sitaram Neupane at Changunarayan-9, Bhaktapur. What’s more, it had also robbed Narhari Regmi’s house in Chunikhel-6, Kathmandu, on December 13.

On October 11, it had robbed an unattended house of Bimala Shakya at Krishnamandir, Lalitpur. In all these cases, the modus operandi of the group was the same. Gang members would barge into the house with pistol, khukuri and iron rods, threaten and take family members under control and make off with valuables.

On Friday midnight, a gang of five members had looted property worth Rs 1.5 lakh from the house of Chandra Bahadur Shrestha at Mulpani-5, Kathmandu. Later, the Shrestha family along with locals attacked the robbers. The family members were injured and one of the robbers, who had sustained serious injuries, died in a hospital.

The deceased was Dev Lama Rumba alias Kamal of Kulekhani-3, Makawanpur. He had been living in Hetauda-8. He had served one-and-a- half-month jail term in a robbery case in Lalitpur on April 2013.

After the robbery at Mulpani, the gang, leaving behind the injured friend, headed to Duwakot-6, Changunarayan, where it looted the house of Renu Timilsina.

Police got crucial information about the gang after the arrest of Shom Bahadur Lama, 35, of Kulekhani-4, Makawanpur. Lama had been living in Jorpati. The victims identified the arrested person and the deceased when we showed them their photographs, police said.

According to officials, five members of the gang, who are at large, have also been identified but they are yet to be arrested.

They are also analysing the pattern of robberies that took place in the last few months to see if there are other such gangs active in property crimes in the city.

Awareness campaign

KATHMANDU: In the wake of mounting incidents of property crime in the valley, security agencies have decided to to launch an awareness campaign. A recent meeting of chiefs of all three Metropolitan Police Range offices in the valley and the Crime Division decided to conduct a special campaign to curb organised robberies in the valley. “We have directed all police circles, sectors and community police to conduct awareness programmes in their areas. We told community police to involve public through interactions,” said SSP Bijay Lal Kayastha, MPCD in-charge. According to Kayastha, with help from the Crime Division and uniformed police, they have made layers of security rings. When an incident is reported, a police team from the nearby post will rush to the spot without delay. If culprits manage to escape, second ring will follow them. “Our team may also reach border areas depending on gravity of the crime,” he said.