After failing to establish charges, the government is preparing to deport all 122 Chinese nationals who were arrested on December 23 from various parts of Kathmandu for their involvement in some suspicious activities.

Immediately after the arrest, Nepal Police officials had said the Chinese were suspected to be involved in online gambling, financial fraud, cybercrime and violating visa norms.

At least two top security officials told the Post that no charges could be established against them during the weeks-long investigation.

The government is preparing to send them to China via two Chinese regular flights, the officials said.

In one of the biggest arrests of foreign nationals, the Nepal Police had conducted raids simultaneously at various places in Kathmandu.

Security officials had said around 800 Chinese nationals were under their watch and that they would be arrested soon.

“They could have committed crime in China from here, but we could not find any record here. We are waiting for forensic reports,” said Uttam Subedi, chief of the Metropolitan Crime Division, Kathmandu. “Our job is to ascertain whether they committed crimes in our land, which we could not establish. It’s up to the government, or the Home Ministry for that matter, what to do with them.”

A director at China’s Ministry of Public Security was in Kathmandu during and after the arrest, who according to security officials had told officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs that at least 1,000 Chinese nationals from China’s Fujian province are hiding in Nepal and are active in suspicious activities.

“After discussions with Chinese officials in Kathmandu, our impression was that a big ring of Chinese nationals with deep pockets are active in various kind of suspicious activities in Kathmandu,” a security official told the Post on condition of anonymity. “Those 122 arrested ones are just workers.”

The official, however, said investigating agencies are not saying the Chinese in question did not commit any crime in Nepal. “The agencies could not establish any charge.”

“We do not have the capacity and technological know-how to ascertain the types of crime they could have committed,” said another security official.

Out of 122, only 67 arrested Chinese citizens were holding passports.

“For all others, we are preparing travel documents to send them back on Wednesday on China Southern and China Eastern flights,” the official told the Post.

A day after the arrest, China’s Ministry of External Affairs said during a press briefing in Beijing that it was a joint operation carried out by the police of Nepal and China, raising concerns in Kathmandu over whether Nepali security agencies working at the behest of Beijing.

Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa had even taken the issue up with Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi.