Babu Thapa, who was involved in the murder of then Supreme Court judge Ran Bahadur Bam a decade ago, escaped from Sundhara Prison on Bhadra 24.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The police were under pressure for nearly two and a half years after failing to arrest the perpetrators of a high-profile murder in the capital. The then Inspector General of Police (IGP) Upendra Kant Aryal had called the incident a "thorn in the side of the neck".
When the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) team arrested him from Chitwan 2 years and 7 months after the incident, Babu Thapa confessed to the crime. ‘He had been arrested before and released due to lack of evidence, and since then he had been on the run,’ says the then director of the CIB, Hemanta Malla Thakuri, ‘Whenever the police reached his house to arrest him, he was already running away in panic.’
The then IGP Aryal himself was present at the press conference organized to inform about his arrest, showing how much priority the police had given to this incident.
The same Babu Thapa, who was involved in the murder of Supreme Court Judge Rana Bahadur Bam a decade ago, has escaped from prison.
The accused in the duty case, who hails from Bagmati Municipality-2, Sarlahi, was found to have escaped from the Sundhara Central Jail on 24 Bhadra. According to an officer of the Valley Crime Investigation Office, the investigation is being carried out with priority on the issue of his absconding in connection with the shooting death of Judge Bam.
‘When the CIB arrested him in 2071, the names of judges, police officers, land revenue officials and others were found in his diary,’ says an officer involved in the investigation at that time, ‘the name of the then police inspector (inspector) Kumodh Dhungel was found in that list, after the murder of the judge, his father came on the police radar.’
At present, the police have given priority to searching for prisoners like him who could pose a risk to the police and increase fear in the society.
‘We have given more priority to searching for the accused involved in incidents of serious nature and public concern,’ says SP Kazi Kumar Acharya of the Valley Crime Investigation Office.
The police had concluded that the reason for the murder of the judge was a dispute within the Churebhavar Rastriya Party. The difference of opinion between party chairman Keshav Mainali and vice-chairman Thapa had reached a point of litigation.
During the first Constituent Assembly elections, this party had won one seat through proportional representation. At that time, Babu contested directly from Dhanusha Constituency No. 7 but was defeated. He received the highest number of 3,384 votes after UML, Congress and UCPN-M.
The then chairman Mainali became a member of the assembly in the one seat won by the party through proportional representation. However, the internal dispute within the party escalated to such an extent that Thapa expelled Mainali from the party. A complaint was filed against him at the Election Commission.
The commission recognized Babu's group. However, he went to the Supreme Court expressing his dissatisfaction with that too. According to the police, at that time, his father was harboring a desire to become a member of the Legislative Assembly by removing Mainali. He had also received assurances that he would be made the Minister of State for Home after becoming a member of the Legislative Assembly. That is why he moved to remove Mainali.
However, the then Supreme Court judge Bam's single bench overturned the Election Commission's decision and ordered Mainali to continue. Police officials say that he killed Judge Bam in retaliation for that.
During the internal rift within the party, his father had also attacked President Mainali's son Sameer. A case was also filed against him for murder. In that case, he met Karan Chaudhary in 2067 BS while he was in Jaleshwor Jail.
Later, he and Karan planned to kill Judge Bam along with Sanjay Smiley Magar, also known as Bhagwan. And, in the presence of Babusamate near the UN Park, the then Judge Bam* was shot 6 times by his group.
He was taken to Norvik Hospital shortly after. However, the doctors declared him dead before he was brought.
–This has been corrected as the name Judge Bam was previously used instead of something else. –Editor
