National
Fugitive robber ‘Tike’ hurt in police crossfire
An absconding prisoner Tika Bahadur Thapa Magar, alias, ‘Tike’ has been critically injured during a police encounter on Saturday evening in Chitwan.An absconding prisoner Tika Bahadur Thapa Magar, alias, ‘Tike’ has been critically injured during a police encounter on Saturday evening in Chitwan.
A special team from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division was on pursuit of Tike since he had escaped from the high-security Dillibazar prison on January 19 night.
On Saturday evening, the police team had come across Thapa Magar with his partner at Om Sai Petrol Pump in Ramnagar of Bharatpur Metropolitan City.
Thapa Magar, who had opened fire at police, was injured when the police team fired back. Thapa had received bullet injuries in his thigh and hands, according to division chief SSP Devesh Lohani.
“We were closely tracking his movements. This evening, the search team came across him in Chitwan. He opened fire at our personnel and was injured in cross-firing,” SSP Lohani said. “He has been brought to Kathmandu for treatment.”
Thapa and his partner were trying to flee the scene on a motorbike (Na 47 Pa 5052).
Police had initially reported that Thapa was killed during the incident, but he was found alive after he was taken to the hospital.
Thapa Magar had managed to escape the jail after scaling the barbed wire fence with another inmate Bhupal Thapa, who was later nabbed. Bhupal was his long-time partner in crime in many incidents of robbery.
Wanted in several robbery and theft cases in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Kavre districts, Thapa Magar was arrested in January last year after more than a decade on the run.
Only a few days before their arrest, Tika and Bhupal had robbed a woman of Rs600,000 in Kaushaltar of Bhaktapur on January 6, according to the crime division record.
After his escape, the crime division has deployed the team to capture him.