BARA, Feb 1: The District Police Office (DPO), Bara, has taken Jagat Narayan Raut Kurmi, a driver of the District Administration Office (DAO), into custody for investigations into a road accident on January 26 in which a Superintendent of Police (SP) was killed and a chief district officer (CDO) was critically injured.
Reportedly, Kurmi was driving the DAO vehicle (Na 1 Jha 1633) when it met with the accident, tragically killing SP of Armed Police Force (APF) Balaram Pokharel on the spot. The vehicle was also carrying the CDO of Bara, Ganesh Bhattarai who was critically injured in the incident. Bhattarai is currently undergoing treatment at Grande Hospital in Kathmandu.
CDO's driver taken into custody for investigation
The vehicle is said to have gone out of control and bumped into a stone loaded tractor-trailer parked on the East-West Highway. Police Inspector of Area Police Office (APO), Nijgadh, Bikram Lama blamed over-speeding as the reason behind the fatal mishap.
"This accident could have been prevented if the driver had not been negligent. At least there would not have been any human casualty if the precautions had been adopted," said Lama.
A case has been filed against Kurmi at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj, for negligent driving. SP Pokharel, CDO Bhattarai, Mayor of Kolbi Municipality Bharat Bhandari along with few security personnel were returning from a picnic organized by Karmachari Milan Kendra, Bara on Saturday when they got into an accident near Pasal Bridge along the East-West Highway.
According to police, the team deployed for investigation has raided the residence of driver Kurmi based in Motibagh to find out more details. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Kurmi was involved in lot of financial irregularities collaborating with various smugglers and businesspersons using CDO Bhattarai's name.
Police started suspecting Kurmi after finding out that the driver who once struggled for managing two square meals is now the owner of luxurious houses in Kalaiya and Anamnagar of Kathmandu. He also owns five bighas of land in Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan city-17.
