KATHMANDU: Former Maoist Commander Kali Bahadur Kham has been arrested from Thamel, Kathmandu.

According to SP Navaraj Adhikari, the spokesperson of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range, Kham was taken into custody on Tuesday.

He had been on the run since the murder case of Ramhari Shrestha, a trader from Ramechhap running a business in Kathmandu.

Kham had been absconding for 15 years.

Shrestha’s body, thrown into the Narayani River, was found on May 10 in a decomposed state.

Shrestha was reportedly taken into control by a group under Kham’s command on April 27, 2008, and taken to the combatants’ Shaktikhor, Chitwan-based Third Division.

Earlier, after signing a peace accord and placing the combatants in cantonment, the Maoist combatants’ third division had opened a liaison office at Shrestha’s home in Koteshwor.

Rs 1.7 million and a pistol were reportedly stolen from Shrestha’s house on March 27, 2008.

Maoist leaders Govinda Bahadur Batala, Keshav Adhikari, Gangaram Thapa, Arjun Karki, and others are accused of murdering Shrestha in Chitwan.