‘Serial killer’, conman who used lethal drugs

Abhishek Raj Singh

KATHMANDU, NOV 07 -

Police on Wednesday made public a ‘serial killer’ who allegedly committed at least six murder s in Nepal and India.

Abhisek Raj Singh, 32, who had gone into depression after his father was allegedly killed by former Maoist rebels on August 24, 2005, murder ed two persons in Bardiya district to avenge his father’s death, while he murder ed the other four for money, police said. Ajay Raj, the father, was an official at the District Development Committee office in Banke.

Abhisek, who was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Crime Investigation Division (MPCID) on Monday, has admitted to themurder s—five in the country and one in Uttar Pradesh state in India, according to the police. In a video footage of the interrogation, Abhisek confesses that he murder ed two Maoist cadres surnamed ‘Chaudhary,’ who he claimed were the brains behind his father’s murder .

“I went to their village with my friends and stoned both of them to death,” he told the police. After killing the ‘Chaudhary’ duo, Abhisek came to Kathmandu and became a conman, cheating people and swindling money from aspiring migrant workers.

Identified by around a dozen names including Samir Ghimire, Dev Raj Sharma, Raj Singh, Dev Guru, Ranjit Singh, Prakash KC, Rahman Halawai, Abhisek held a fake citizenship with Samir Ghimire’s name.

Nara Bahadur Gotame, 27, a real estate businessman and a model, was Abhisek’s third victim. Gotame, a good friend of Abhisek’s, was killed over a minor dispute on profits they made from selling a plot

of land, police said. Abhisek took Gotame to Surkhet on the pretext of showing him a plot of land. Once in Surkhet, he laced Gotame’s drink with drugs (Diazepam tablets) and later injected four doses of the drug Nitravet when Gotame fell unconscious. He then fled to India, police said.

Police added that he killed Jagat Singh Tamang, aka Buddha, on July 21 last year. Buddha, who had just returned from Switzerland, and Abhisek had gone to India in the former’s car, and in a Lucknow-based hotel, Abhisek mixed psychoactive drug Tryptin in Buddha’s glass of milk. He then injected a high dose of Nitravet on Buddha and loaded him in the car and dumped the body on the roadside. He then abandoned the vehicle in Raxaul and returned to Nepal, police said.

After three months, Abhisek killed one Sarki Tamang, 35, as he thought Tamang knew all about Buddha’s murder .

Tamang, according to the police, was a cook in Abhisek’s house.

“He took Tamang to one of the Sundhara-based guest houses in Kathmandu and killed him with the same killer drugs on October 29, 2012,” SSP Bijay Lal Kayastha, the chief at the MPCID, said. According to him, Abhisek’s last victim was Niran Jung Pandey, 32, whom he killed with the support from his brother-in-law Prabhakar Narsingh Rana, 19, of Kathmandu and his friend Anil Kumar Patel, 28.

“He was also involved in multiple cases of fraud and extortion,” said Kayastha. Police also arrested Rana and Patel.