Police have arrested four persons including former chairman of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies for their involvement in fraud. 

 Prem Katuwal, who operates Blue International foreign employment company, along with three others, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Crime Division after Rs 2.3 million was found in his bank account, for which the source of income was unknown. 

Based on a complaint and subsequent investigation, police said the money was deposited by an international racket of frauds who trick people into depositing money after assuring that they have won lottery or gift worth millions.

This new form of digital crime of late has become a major cause for concern in India and Nepal where hundreds have fallen prey to these fraudsters. 

The modus operandi adopted by these fraudsters is they connect themselves to unsuspecting people through social media. After months of conversation, the users are lured into believing believe that the person they have befriended “is genuine”. They are then promised expensive gifts and on the pretext of customs hassles and other issues, they are asked to deposit money in certain bank accounts. The deposit would range from Rs 100,000 to Rs 1 million. Once it is deposited, sometimes multiple times, the person vanishes.

Even the Embassy of Nepal in India has received complaints about such cases.

 “The arrest of Katuwal shows there is a group working in close connection with frauds abroad,” said SSP Dinesh Amatya, chief of MPCD. “Our investigation shows that he had been taking kickbacks from the rackets.”

 SSP Amatya said Katuwal has failed to show the source of Rs 2.4 million that was deposited in his account.

 Katuwal was dragged into controversy after three women who were arrested tipped his name regarding a fraud case. 

The woman was lured into depositing Rs 200,000 after one of her longtime Facebook friends claiming to be living in United Kingdom said that he would send over 50,000 pounds to her. 

In a few days, she got a call from New Delhi that her gift was seized by the Indian customs and that Rs 200,000 had to be deposited to release it. After depositing the money, no one contacted her.     

 “We are tracing Katuwal’s involvement in other similar cases,” said SSP Amatya. 

Kathmandu District Court has remanded Katuwal and others in custody for further investigation.