The District Court in Morang has remanded Dhan Bahadur BK aka DB Silwal, Morang in-charge of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, on a firearms case.

BK, a resident of Madi Municipality Ward No. 4 in Sankhuwasabha, was arrested on the charge of killing school principal Rajendra Shrestha in Miklajung Rural Municipality, Morang, a month ago.

Shrestha, the principal of Saraswati Basic School, was killed by the cadres of Chand-led party whose activities have been banned by the government. A group of six party activists had abducted him from his house at Barkhe in Miklajung-1 on December 4. He was found dead with his throat slit in a nearby forest the same day.

On Wednesday, a single bench of Judge Durga Khadka issued a verdict to remand BK in judicial custody.

Acting on a tip-off, the District Police Office in Morang had arrested BK on the charge of extorting money from businessmen in Budhiganga Rural Municipality Ward No. 4 in Morang. BK, who was also involved in the killing of Shrestha, was arrested with a semi-automatic pistol with its bullets a month ago, said police.

After investigation, the District Police Office in Morang had submitted two separate files—firearms case and abduction and murder case—against BK at the District Attorney Office in Morang. On Sunday, the Office had registered a firearms case against BK in the District Court.

According to Raj Kumar Dahal, registrar at the Morang District Court, the court will start taking statements from BK regarding the abduction and murder case filed against him from Sunday.

“On Sunday, the court will start recording statements from BK on the abduction and murder case. He was remanded in prison after the hearing on the firearms case was conducted,” said Dahal.

Meanwhile, an abduction and murder case has been filed against the Communist Party of Nepal’s leader Netra Bikram Chand and 41 other party activists in connection with the abduction and subsequent murder of Miklajung’s school principal Shrestha.

On Monday, the District Attorney’s Office filed a charge sheet at the Morang District Court against 42 people. Among them, 41 suspects are at large whereas BK has been kept in judicial custody, according to the District Police Office.

“Search for the other suspects is underway,” said Santosh Khadka, superintendent of police in Morang.

According to the charge-sheet filed in the court, 54-year-old Shrestha was kidnapped and subsequently murdered at Chand’s instructions. The Chand group had owned up to the incident by issuing a statement saying the party took action against Shrestha as retaliation for being an informant to the police and helping them in the arrest of party leaders and cadres.