Police on Tuesday made public five persons, including the shooter, arrested in connection with the murder of Sharad Kumar Gauchan.

Gauchan, who was the chairman of the Federation of Contractors’ Associations of Nepal (FCAN), was murdered in broad daylight on October 9 at Prayag Marg near Shanti Nagar while he was on his way to the FCAN office in Anamnagar in his vehicle. 

The mastermind of the murder is still at large, said police. 

The arrestees are Rajiv Syangtyang of Panchakanya Rural Municipality, Nuwakot; Shivaji Mahato of Parsa, Mukesh Kumar Pandey of Bihar, India; Santosh Gurung of Thori, Parsa; and Prakash Budhathoki. 

Mahato had arranged firearms while Gurung had managed the motorbike that was used in the crime. According to police, Gauchan was murdered after he refused to pay extortion money. 

The mastermind of the crime is the notorious gangster Samirman Singh Basnet, said police. Basnet and his partners Manoj Pun, Lopsang Lama, Ganga Lingden, Shyam Bahadur Gumbe, Amar Bahadur Lama, Roshan Budhathoki and Ajay Thapa are on the run. Lama and Gumbe had deserted the Nepal Army.

Syangtyang had opened fire on Gauchan while Mahato was the one who had supplied arms used in the killing, said DIG Ganesh KC, who leads an investigation committee formed by Nepal Police. 

“Samirman Singh Basnet, the mastermind, was trying to extort money from Gauchan. After Gauchan refused to oblige, his group had been following Gauchan for a month before perpetrating the murder,” said DIG KC. 

Police investigation shows that Mahato had bought a stolen motorbike and arms from India and supplied them to Syangtyang.

Immediately after the crime, Lopsang Lama had called several builders and police officials, including SSP Rabindra Dhanuk, chief of the Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, owning up to the murder. 

Pun and Lama are believed to be operating from Uttar Pradesh of India in areas such as Gorakhpur and Faizabad. 

Pun has been on the run since he was implicated in murder of Durga Tiwari, Rupandehi district chairman of Youth Association Nepal, a youth wing of the CPN-UML. 

All the five arrestees were presented before Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday. They have been remanded to 60-day custody. 

Nepal Police Headquarters on October 10 had formed a special task force under DIG KC to investigate Gauchan’s murder. 

The team comprises SSP Sher Bahadur Basnet of the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police and SSP Dibesh Lohani, three DSPs and one inspector of Metropolitan Police Crime Division.