Former Maoist Commander Kali Bahadur Kham was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder of businessman Ram Hari Shrestha.

Kham was taken into police custody from Thamel, Kathmandu, said Senior Superintendent of Police Bhupendra Khatri.

Shrestha, a restaurateur in Koteshwor, was abducted from Kathmandu on April 27, 2008 and his body was found on the bank of Trishuli River in Chitwan district a month later on May 25. The Maoists had rented a house belonging to Shrestha in Koteshwor.

In a statement recorded by the police, Govinda Bahadur Batala, a brigade commander of then Maoist People’s Liberation Army, had confessed to have taken Shrestha, along with Keshav Adhikari and Gangaram Thapa, to Chitwan, for an investigation into their alleged role in the robbery of Rs 1.7 million and a pistol.

Shrestha’s whereabouts were unknown until May 15, 2008 when Kham, commander of Maoist combatants’ Shaktikhor camp who was said to have lost the cash and the weapon, announced that Shrestha had died in Jutepani, Chitwan, one of the cantonments of the Maoist combatants.

In his statement, Batala said Shrestha had died at Dhakapani in Chitwan when he was being brought to Kathmandu for treatment after his health deteriorated due to the beating. Adhikari and Thapa, the Maoist cadres, tossed Shrestha’s dead body in the river en route. Adhikari and Thapa are absconding.

Kham, who was found guilty of the crime by the Chitwan District Court, had been on the run. Kham will be taken to Chitwan where he will be tried.