Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested Puran Bahadur Rai, an absconding accused in the 2010 murder case of Madan Tamang, then President of the Akhil Bhartiya Gorkha League (ABGL). Rai was apprehended from Bommasandra, Maruthi Nagar, in Bengaluru Rural, Karnataka, after evading the law since 2017, officials said.
Tamang was murdered on May 21, 2010, in Darjeeling, West Bengal. The CBI took over the investigation on January 19, 2011. The case was initially registered by the Sadar Police Station in Darjeeling.
Rai, a charge-sheeted accused in the case, had been avoiding trial proceedings since 2017. The Chief Judge of the City Sessions Court in Kolkata issued a proclamation against him on April 3, 2017, and later an open-ended warrant on November 20, 2024, after he failed to appear in court. To evade arrest, Rai had relocated from Darjeeling to Bengaluru.
After sustained efforts and leveraging technical intelligence, the CBI successfully tracked down and arrested Rai. He will now be produced before the competent court to face trial.
"The arrest of Puran Bahadur Rai is a significant breakthrough in this long-pending case. The CBI remains committed to ensuring that those evading the law are brought to justice," a CBI official stated.
The case has drawn widespread attention due to its political undertones and the high-profile nature of the victim, who was a prominent Gorkha leader.
