POLICE SQUAD AT CENTRAL CHANGED

Kathmandu, 19 March: A new police squad took charge this week of security at the capital’s Central Jail where a hired Indian killer failed to assassinate Yunis Ansari 10 days ago.
Ansari, jailed for dealing in fake Indian currency and drugs charges survived with a right shoulder injury.
Nobody has to far claimed responsibility for the daring assassination attempt though in the past Indian criminal gangs claimed responsibility for the murder in the capital of RPP lawmaker Mirza Beg and media tycoon Jamin
A new squad is led by DSP Gobinda Thapalyia with Inspectors Ravi Thapaliya and Nabin Chetri in the team.
A tam led by DSP Pushker KC and Inspectors Jog Lan Dangol and Prakash Karki have been transferred.
Four policemen were suspended immediately after the failed firing incident at the high security prison where French killer Charles Shobraj is also lodged.
Shobraj has been convicted for murdering an American and Canadian tourist at the peak of the hippie movement.
Jasjeet Singh, who attempted to kill Ansari, is in judicial custody as more charges are being prepared.
He’s already been charged for possession of illegal arms and may face more serious attempted murder charge.
The high-level panel formed to investigate into the March 10 Central Jail shooting has submitted its report to Nepal Police Headquarters, according to a source, The Himalayan Times reports..

But the report that was submitted on Thursday by the panel comprising AIG Rabindra Pratap Shah and DIG Parshuram Khatri and SSP Madhav Prasad Joshi has repeated earlier known facts rather than answering many questions, if what the source told this daily about the report is anything to go by.

The panel has shifted the blame for the incident on security negligence. But the

Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s Office had, a day after shooting, attributed

the incident to security negligence, thereby leaving one to infer that there is nothing new in the report.

An Indian national by the name of Jasjeet Singh on March 10 had managed to enter the visiting lounge of the jail and shot at Yunus Ansari, and that had caused an uproar about jail security measures.

The report says ‘there was security negligence on the part of security personnel entrusted with the task of guarding the jail premises’. “The on-duty cops did not carry out manual search on Jasjeet Singh, and they let him enter the visiting lounge once he passed through the metal detector. They misread the metal detector’s alarm as to have been produced due to the metal buckle of a belt the shooter was wearing,” said the source, citing an excerpt from the report. “Had the cops searched manually or used the metal detector after asking him to take off the belt, the incident could have been avoided.” Singh, according to police, had concealed the revolver in his groin.

The report has also questioned Jailer Chhetra Bahadur Bhandari and DSP Pushkar KC’s competence for their failure to monitor Singh’s frequent visits to the jail on the pretext of meeting Charles Sobhraj.

Police officials had admitted earlier also that allowing Singh to visit Sobhraj was negligence on

the part of the jail management department which is

under Jailer Bhandari and

DSP KC — both of them had not reported to their seniors about Singh’s frequent visits to the jail and Sobhraj.

In a face-saving measure, police had immediately suspended on-duty SI Laxman Bhandari and two constables — Manoj Karki and Tilak Ram Chaudhary.
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