By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Oct 7 (IANS) Nepal says they have no idea about the criminal life led by Abdul Majid Siddiqui - also known as Majid Maniyar - who, according to the Indian police headed a fake Indian currency and arms smuggling network in Nepal and was allegedly an operative of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

“We have no official information about Maniyar,” Nepal’s home ministry spokesman Jaya Mukunda Khanal said Wednesday, 48 hours after Maniyar was found murdered in a hotel room in southern Nepal along the India-Nepal border.

The police at Nepalgunj town, where Maniyar had been found dead in the Lal Gurans Hotel, said barring one incident, the murdered man had nothing adverse in his records.

About two years ago, Nepal Police had arrested him on the charge of running a counterfeit Indian currency notes network in Nepal. However, he was released by the court due to insufficient evidence.

Police said Maniyar, in his late 40s, had been residing in Nepalgunj town along with his family.

His wife and sons claimed the body Tuesday after post mortem.

According to reports in the Indian media, another son of Maniyar, Javed Siddiqui alias Vicky, was arrested recently in an Indian border state with fake currency notes.

Vicky allegedly said his father had connections with the ISI as well as underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

The Indian media also reported that Vicky had “confessed” to having links with Nepal’s former crown prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah, an allegation that was denied by the former royal last month.

While it is speculated that Maniyar was killed by his gang members to prevent cutting a deal with the Indian police in a bid to get his son released, Nepal police have begun a manhunt for two Indians who could have been the killers.

According to police, on Sep 26 two men checked into the Lal Gurans hotel on New Road in Nepalgunj, taking two rooms on the same floor.

They identified themselves as Ajay Singh and Bijendra Singh and said they had come to visit Nepal.

The men spoke in Hindi, making the hotel staff think they were Indians.

On Monday, Maniyar dropped in and was closeted with the two men in room 105 in the afternoon. The men ordered alcohol and around 5 p.m., left the hotel.

At night, a call was made to the hotel from India, informing the manager that there was a dead body in the locked room.

There were two wounds on the head of the body, making police suspect that Maniyar was shot by the assailants using a silencer.

Descriptions of the two visitors as well as Maniyar have been circulated at the border check points in southern Nepal and an alert issued for their arrest, police said.