The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) recently busted a passport racket which was found to have sold off 14 Nepali passports for Rs 2.95 million in Bangladesh.

The CIB on Monday filed a case against Kumar Puri, 47, of Al Zarifa Manpower and Purna Bahadur Magar, 43, of RP International Consultancy after making them public in connection with the passport scam. Police is searching for Devi Prasad Kafle, 36, of NCF Employment Services, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the scam.

The CIB upon further investigation found that Magar had sold the passports to Mohamad Delawar Hussain, a agent running the racket in Bangladesh .

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Uttam Karki of CIB said fewer complaints are lodged with police on lost passports as the agents would pay over Rs 20,000 for the same while it would just take Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 to produce a new passport.

“We are going through proper diplomatic channels to trace people who are using the Nepali passports,” said SSP Karki.

Recent arrests made by police have revealed that Nepali passport racketeers first seek out demand for Nepali labourers from foreign companies and then passports are collected from aspiring migrant workers. The passports are then validated for various jobs from the Department of Foreign Employment.

The owner of the recruiting agency then take work visas for Saudi Arabia for stamping in Bangladesh in the absence of the Gulf country’s embassy in Nepal and the local agent of the company then make a deal with Bangladeshi nationals. If they provide the stipulated sum, the agent sells it to the person. Back in Nepal, the company either files police report about the lost passports or pays a sum of around Rs 20,000 to the passport bearers as compensation and majority of them don’t report about their lost misused passports.

SSP Karki said many Nepalis are being denied the right to go for foreign jobs due to passport misuse. This has also affected the flow of remittance into the country, he said. “The government should produce white paper on the number of passports being issued to check the misuse.”