Ex-Maoist fighter charged with killing postman

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KALENDRA SEJUWAL

SURKHET, Aug 17: A postman in Dailekh was murdered with the intention of robbing an envelope which the accused suspected to have contained money inside. The victim, Prem Bahadur Kathayat, 19, had joined the local Kushapani Post Office as a postman on July 17 this year under a contract that paid Rs 3,000 a month.

According to the District Police Office, Kathayat was murdered on July 28 while on his way to Kalikot to deliver the post. Bhakta Bahadur, 27, and Dambar Bahadur Buda, 21, of Kanshikangh, Dailekh, have confessed to the crime.



But the main accused Kul Bahadur Singh alias Kamal, who attacked the victim with a sharp-edged weapon, is still at large, police said. According to Dailekh police chief DSP Dipak Basnet, Singh is a former Maoist combatant.

"We did not find any money in the envelop, said the accused. There was only IRs 100 and a mobile phone on him. They also stole a goat from Padampani Pokharel´s cattle perhaps disappointed by the murder in which they got virtually nothing.

The two were arrested in Birendranagar while they were escaping to India on the charge of stealing the goat and were even freed after paying the goat´s price in the presence of Kushpani police. They however confessed to the murder while being interrogated for stealing the goat, said DSP Basnet.

Kathayat was a grade 9 student at Adarsh Higher Secondary School at Kushapani.