New gangs have Valley police worried

KATHMANDU, May 21: A wanted man who succeeded in hiding his illegal firearm has recently been prosecuted only on public offense charge. Investigators believe that the man named Manish Manandhar, a drug user, is the kingpin of a four-men criminal group involved in robbery and ´contract´ assaults in the capital.

The Manandhar group has been identified at a time when police have uncovered a similar gang led by one Niraj KC which was involved in two separate fatal shooting incidents in Teku and Ganabahal last month.

KC, who himself gunned down Prem Krishna Maharjan, a staffer of Exide Battery Company showroom, and Anjani Kumari Chachan, a Kathmandu-based Indian businessman, reportedly fled to India following the arrest of four of his aides. He is also believed to be a drug user
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"We are looking for two other gangs besides these two," said a senior official at Metropolitan Police Crime Division Kathmandu. "They all have firearms and organized networks."

The emergence of these new groups has astounded the authorities who used to believe that a few known criminal gangs generally are involved in major organized crimes in the capital. "These new gangs could have carried out many major incidents including lethal shootings in the last few years," said investigative officials.

KC´s gang has also been linked to two shootings involving a monk and a money exchange centre respectively at Thamel in 2010. In both incidents, the gang managed to escape with a huge amount of cash.

"We now need to revisit the previous major cases in view of the possibility of involvement of these new groups," said DSP Somendra Singh Rathor, who led investigations into Teku and Ganabahal shootings that took Nepal Police nearly a month to find substantial leads.

Investigative officials said that the new gangs involving mainly drug users appear to be more dangerous than other existing organized gangs. "KC had opened fire in a drug-induced high while his group had only visited the Exide Battery office with the objective to stalk Maharjan over a dispute about a woman," said officials. "Curbing such gang activites is very difficult."

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