Kathmandu, August 20
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| Nepal Police forensic team investigating the crime scene where Kumar Shrestha, aka Ghainte (inset), was shot dead, in Samakhushi, Kathmandu, on Thursday. Photo: THT |
Kumar Shrestha, aka Ghainte, a gangster who was under police surveillance, was killed and two of his associates injured in ‘a gunfight’ at Samakhushi today.
The shootout occurred in front of Ghainte’s house at 11:15am when he allegedly opened fire on cops in civvies who tried to detain him for questioning about his suspicious activities and complaints about his involvement in extortion.
SSP Sarbendra Khanal, Metropolitan Police Crime Division in-charge, said Ghainte, 34, was killed after he suddenly opened fire on security personnel deployed to detain him for questioning.
Eight bullets hit Ghainte and he was rushed to TU Teaching Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment. His accomplices, Suren Maharjan and Raj Maharjan, were hit in the lower limbs and are out of danger.
Three cops — ASIs Bal Kumar Sanjel and Ranjit Lama and Constable Hemant Chand — were also injured, as Ghainte’s accomplices pelted them with stones.
They have been admitted to National Trauma Centre for treatment.
“Ghainte fired at the police personnel, while his accomplices pelted them with stones,” SSP Khanal said, adding that three more persons brandishing pistols were with Ghainte but they managed to flee.
Police have recovered a pistol, allegedly used by Ghainte, from the incident site.
“Ghainte and his gang had been extorting businesspersons, real estate agents, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, mainly in Samakhushi, Balaju, Manamaiju and Naya Bazaar areas in the name of raising funds for earthquake victims by issuing death and kidnapping threats. It is our duty and responsibility to create a business-friendly environment and ensure people’s right to live and do business. We were trying to detain him for interrogation before he opened fire on police personnel and they retaliated,” SSP Khanal told mediapersons.
Plainclothes cops had been looking for Ghainte for the past few days. Ghainte used to run a restaurant in Lazimpat and had faced legal action for attempted murder.
His body has been kept in TUTH for post-mortem. Hundreds of his supporters gathered at the hospital to protest the killing.
Ghainte was said to have an allegiance to Nepali Congress. Constituent Assembly member and NC leader Jagadish Narsingh KC, who reached the hospital to take stock of the situation, alleged that it was a ‘premeditated murder’ and said Ghainte was living a normal life for the past four years. He demanded that the government should conduct an ‘independent and fair’ investigation into the killing.
On August 6 last year, Dinesh Adhikari aka Chari, an alleged gangster, was killed in police encounter in Bhimdhunga.
A version of this article appears in print on August 21, 2015 of The Himalayan Times.
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