Police on Tuesday arrested the main accused of Durbarmarg gang-rape case who had been absconding ever since the incident in January.

Metropolitan Police Circle, Durbarmarg, police officers arrested Shailesh Karki, 22, resident of Dhumbarahi. DSP Mohan Thapa of Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, confirmed the arrest.

Three other accused in the rape case—Deepak Shrestha, Bikash Gautam and Rabi Paudel—are fugitives of the law.

Police have accused Karki of premeditating the incident and inviting his friends who raped a 22-year-old woman at Durbarmarg-based Landmark Hotel in Kathmandu on January 25.

The woman, in her statements, had said she had been offered momo and wine by Karki, whom she knew for the past six months. After the drink, she “felt drowsy and lethargic”. The four men took her to the hotel and undressed her. “A person who ‘called himself a police’ recorded video of the incident on his mobile phone,” she said.

Following the incident, the accused had also tried to settle the case by paying Rs3 million to Inspector Laxman Thakuri and Sub-Inspector Chandra Bhandari of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Durbarmarg. The culprits had allegedly paid Rs2.7 million to the victim’s mother and Rs300,000 to an agent to settle the case.

The case unfolded when police did not register her complaint the next day. Inspector Thakuri refused to register her complaint and told her to settle the issue with the perpetrators of the crime. Following widespread condemnation of police negligence in the case, the Home Ministry on February 5 suspended Inspector Thakuri for not registering a rape case when the victim herself made complaint at the police station. Police Headquarters also relieved DSP Tilak Bharati as chief of Durbarmarg Police Circle.

Even a probe committee of Police Range, Teku conceded that their unit had gravely mishandled the gang rape case.