Kathmandu: Police have arrested Chandra Damai KC, the 43-year-old inmate who escaped from the Central Jail Jagannathdewal in Kathmandu while serving a sentence in a human trafficking and transportation case. KC had been at large since 24 Bhadra 2082, corresponding to September 9, 2025, when he fled the prison during the turmoil of the Gen Z movement, and his capture brings to an end a manhunt that lasted more than a year.
A special police team deployed to trace the escaped convict apprehended him from Dharmasthali in Tarakeshwar Municipality-6, where he had been living. The operation was carried out by personnel from the District Police Range, Kathmandu, working together with the Balaju Police Circle.
Special team ends the year-long manhunt
According to reports published by Nepal Press and RatoPati, the arrest was the outcome of a dedicated search operation. A special police team was formed to locate the fugitive, drawing officers from the District Police Range, Kathmandu, and the Balaju Police Circle, and it was this team that finally closed in on KC at Dharmasthali, a locality in Tarakeshwar Municipality-6 of Kathmandu district.
KC, a resident of Melamchi Municipality-6 in Sindhupalchok district, had been living in Dharmasthali, and it was there that police eventually caught up with him. Neither report indicated how long he had been staying in the area, whether he had been living under a false identity, or whether anyone had assisted him while he was on the run.
The key details of the case as reported are as follows:
- Who: Chandra Damai KC, 43, a resident of Melamchi Municipality-6, Sindhupalchok
- Conviction: Serving a sentence in a human trafficking and transportation case
- Escape: Fled the Central Jail Jagannathdewal in Kathmandu on 24 Bhadra 2082 (September 9, 2025)
- Arrest: Detained from Dharmasthali, Tarakeshwar Municipality-6
- Units involved: A special team from the District Police Range, Kathmandu, and the Balaju Police Circle
The length of the manhunt underscores the challenge police faced in locating the escaped inmate. With his arrest from Dharmasthali, the search operation that began after the Bhadra jailbreak has formally concluded with the fugitive back in custody.
A conviction for human trafficking
KC was serving his sentence in a case of human trafficking and transportation at the time of his escape. Human trafficking and transportation is treated as one of the most serious crimes under Nepali law, and convictions in such cases carry significant prison terms. The reports published so far have not disclosed the length of KC's sentence, the court that handed down the verdict, or the specifics of the offence for which he was convicted.
The Central Jail Jagannathdewal, from which KC escaped, is a prison located in Kathmandu, and it was from this facility that he went absconding in Bhadra. At the time of his escape, he was an inmate serving an already imposed sentence rather than a detainee awaiting trial, a detail that made his recapture a priority for the district's police range.
Escape during the Gen Z movement
The timing of the jailbreak is central to the case. The escape took place on 24 Bhadra 2082, during the period of the Gen Z movement, the youth-led protest wave that brought large demonstrations and considerable unrest to the streets of Kathmandu in early September 2025. Nepal Press explicitly identified KC as a prisoner who fled the jail during the movement, linking his escape directly to that turbulent stretch of days in the capital.
While the reports confirming his arrest did not lay out the exact circumstances of the jailbreak itself, they establish that KC had been on the run continuously since that date. For more than a year, he remained untraced until the special team acting on the basis of information about his presence in Dharmasthali moved in and detained him.
Fugitive back in custody
With the arrest, KC is back in the hands of the authorities from whom he had escaped in Bhadra. The reports did not specify whether he has already been returned to the Central Jail Jagannathdewal to serve the remainder of his sentence, or whether any additional proceedings will follow his recapture. Details on those next steps were not immediately available in the filings by Nepal Press and RatoPati.
What the arrest does confirm is that the District Police Range, Kathmandu, and the Balaju Police Circle pursued the case long after the initial escape, ultimately locating the convict in the very locality where he had been residing. For now, the manhunt that began with a jailbreak during the Gen Z movement has ended with Chandra Damai KC back behind bars.
