2015-04-24 15:32:00

Nepal nabs killer of Jesuit priest 18 years after murder ‎


Eighteen years after a Jesuit priest was murdered in Nepal, police in the Himalayan nation said they have arrested his suspected killer, Nepal’s daily newspaper Kantipur reported.  Gopal Khadka, 43, who was a domestic help at Fr Thomas Gaffney’s Jesuit centre, was arrested on Monday at Kakkadvitta in eastern Nepal’s Jhapa district while he was trying to re-enter Nepal from India.  US-born Father Gaffney was found dead on the floor of his social center and home on December 13, 1997 with his throat slit but with no evidence of forced entry or a struggle.    Khadka, a native of Fasku-8 in Dolakha district, was presumed the sole suspect based on the statements of other people and his sudden disappearance after the murder.  He has admitted to killing the Jesuit and fleeing to India with Rs 22,000 from the priest.

Born in Texas, Fr. Gaffney founded the St. Xavier Social Service Centre (SXSSC) in 1970, a home to the orphaned, abandoned, homeless and destitute children from 75 districts of Nepal.  Situated in Jawalakhel, Kathmandu, the centre has a maximum capacity to accommodate 80 children with facilities of education and medical facilities.  Fr. Bill P. Robins, former provincial superior of the Jesuits in Nepal as well as Fr. Gaffney’s successor at SXSSC, said: "The Jesuits in Nepal have a good image and are respected by society. We feel safe, and even when the country was a Hindu monarchy we never received any threats. However, we feel more at ease now that Nepal is a secular state, because secularism is the best thing for any democracy in which there is freedom of worship".








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