Police arrested a man in Chandragiri Municipality, Kathmandu, on Saturday morning for possessing firearms and bullets.

The arrestee, identified as Sulav Lama, was arrested with two automatic pistols and 20 rounds of bullets, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Hobindra Bogati, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Crime Range.

Acting on a tip-off, police on Saturday morning had searched a public vehicle en route from Dharke to Kathmandu.

“Documents confiscated from Lama as well as his confession have proved that he works for the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand,” Bogati told the Post. “Investigation is underway.”

The government in March declared the Chand-led party a criminal outfit and banned its activities.

The move followed two explosions carried out by the Chand party in the Capital.

Since banning the Chand party’s activities, police have arrested 573 individuals for their association with the outfit.

At least three Chand party members have died in police action while five of its cadres were killed when improvised devices in their possession went off accidentally.

“The motive of bringing in the weapons to Kathmandu could be to scare people,” said Deputy Inspector General Bishwaraj Pokharel, spokesperson for Nepal Police.

According to Pokharel, due to open border with the southern neighbour, small arms and weapons are often smuggled into Nepal from India and some criminal groups take advantage of the porous border.

Chand’s Communist Party of Nepal is an offshoot of the Maoist party that waged a decade-long war against the state. Six years after the signing of the peace deal that brought the Maoist party to mainstream, Chand, along with Mohan Baidya and Ram Bahadur Thapa, the incumbent home minister, had walked away in 2012. But two years later, Chand formed his own party to launch what he calls “unified revolution”, saying Nepal’s revolution is yet to complete.

Before the deadly blasts in the Capital in February, the Chand party had been involved in attacking some foreing-funded companies, including Ncell, a private sector mobile company.

Though the government has said it is open to talks, the Chand party has not responded, saying it first wants its three preconditions—an official invitation for dialogue, lifting of ban and release of its cadres—to be fulfilled.