Syangja Police on Tuesday nabbed 67-year-old Dilli Bahadur Gharti, who was on the run after being sentenced to life imprisonment 41 years ago. Gharti was arrested from his house in Chapakot Municipality, Syangja.

DSP Nabin Krishna Bhandari of Syangja Police said Gharti was sent to the district prison after his arrest. Gharti, along with 12 others, had beaten Jeet Bahadur Rana, a 24-year-old soldier in the Indian Army, to death in 1976.

“Gharti and the 12 others implicated in the crime were sentenced to death ten months after the incident,” DSP Bhandari said. “The defendants were on the run, and, of them, only three have been arrested so far. We are still searching for the 10 others.”

One of the perpetrators of the crime, Bhakta Bahadur Kumal, 70, was arrested in 2015. Kumal is currently serving his jail term in Kaski District Prison, according to Bhandari. Sixty five-year-old Devi Bahadur Gharti, another person involved in the crime, was arrested and imprisoned in 2018. Gharti is serving his jail term in Palpa District Prison.

“We are actively searching for the remaining 10 persons involved in the killing of Jeet Bahadur Rana,” chief of Syangja District Police SP Bimal Raj Kandel said. “We will bring the criminals to the court of justice sooner or later.”

Kandel said he has made a call to the public to tip off the police about the other criminals’ whereabouts.