Two masked gunmen on motorbikes fired on Shah, chairman of Channel Nepal television and the satellite Space Time Network, as he was traveling in a car near the French Embassy in Kathmandu's busy Lazimpat district. Police told local media that Shah had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest.
Shah died an hour later while being treated at a nearby hospital, news reports said. Shah's driver, Mathura Man Malakar, suffered a thigh wound. Police told reporters that they had not determined a motive for the shooting.
Shah had business interests in several fields but was best known for his media companies. He considered the first to introduce private cable television to Nepal, in 2001. His satellite network controlled virtually all of the distribution of foreign TV channels in Nepal, according to news reports.