KATHMANDU, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- A notorious gangster and his chief aide were gunned down in an encounter with Nepali police in southern Nepal in the wee hours Wednesday morning, a senior police official told Xinhua.

Most wanted criminal Manoj Pun and his chief aide Som Ale were killed during the police encounter in Devdaha Municipality in Rupandehi, a bordering town with India. The encounter took place at Bhawanipur area at 3:30 a.m. local time.

"The most wanted criminal was intercepted by cops at Bhawanipur area. Instead of stopping, he whipped out his weapon and opened fired at them. He also tried to escape from the spot. However, cops took over and began to fire back at them," Superintendent of Police in Rupandehi Shyam Gyawali told Xinhua over the phone on Wednesday.

Pun and his aide had sustained multiple bullets after which they were rushed to a hospital in Rupandehi, where doctors pronounced them dead.

The International Criminal Police Organization had issued Red Corner Notice against Pun two years ago, on the request of Nepal's National Central Bureau, a division of the concerned national police agency.

"He was found to have nexus with criminal outfits in India. He used to frequently travel to India and threaten to Nepali businessmen, demanding huge amount of money over the phone from different Indian cities," the police official said.

Pun was wanted in about a dozen cases of murder, extortion and robberies in different parts of Nepal for the past few years, according to the police.

The notorious criminal was accused of murdering a local politician Durga Tiwari and a local entrepreneur Basanta Poudel in Rupandehi in 2017.?