The Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) on Sunday arrested an Armed Police Force (APF) sub-inspector for abetting the arson in a storeroom at APF’s headquarters in Halchowk. 

Senior Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, confirmed the arrest Hum Bahadur Thapa, who works in the accounts section of the security agency. “We found his involvement in planning arson,” said SSP Lohani.

With the arrest of Shrestha, two APF personnel have been arrested for setting fire in the storeroom of the accounts section on the night of December 11. The MPCD had earlier arrested APF head constable Ram Krishna Shrestha. Properties worth Rs 2.5 million, including some important documents, were destroyed in the fire.

Officers investigation the case suspect Shrestha and Thapa, who had been repeatedly summoned by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) regarding procurements of the security forces, might have set alight the documents fearing that it might blow the lead off their involvement in financial embezzlement. 

During interrogation, Shrestha told investigators that he kept the file near the window and doused it with petrol before setting the fire on the night of December 11. Shrestha had sustained minor burn injuries.