A preliminary police investigation has revealed that the Chhetri brothers, who were on the run for five years after the government shut down their illegal business of selling social security schemes and pyramid model network marketing, had been looking for land in Bhairahawa for the purpose.

After the government decided last year to open doors to foreign couples to have babies through surrogacy in Nepal, the brothers planned to set up the hospital in Bhairahawa, targeting rich Indian clients. Surrogacy is a process where people wanting babies pay for another women to have their baby delivered. “They were trying to cash in on religious faith of people who wish to have their babies delivered in Bhairahawa, a town close to Lumbini—the birth place of Gautam Buddha,” said SSP Sarvendra Khanal, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division. After duping almost 400,000 Nepalis through illegal social security schemes and pyramid model network marketing business, the ULI top honchos were arrested by police from Manali of India’s Himalchal Pradesh. Bishnu was the ULI managing director while Krishna its training director.

After the government clamped down on the ULI business in May 2010, the duo had first travelled to Sikkim and then to Karnataka, New Delhi and Lucknow before taking shelter in Manali. According to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, they were into fishery business in Manali and had also accquired ration cards. The ration card is part of the social security scheme of the Indian government that allows its citizens to buy daily essentials at subsidised rates. “They used the ration card to get the land on lease. The Chhetri brothers had accounts in several Indian banks,” SSP Khanal said.

Bishnu had also acquired an ATM card of HDFC bank and had made frequent transactions, according to police. They also had leased some guest houses in Lucknow and operated their business from there for some time. “The brothers were found to have used money to influence people there,” he added.

The duo, along with 10 others, were convicted by the Lalitpur District Court on March 31, 2014 for defrauding the public by operating banks and financial institutions without permission from the authorities. They were sentenced to three years in jail with a fine of over Rs10.62 million. The ULI had duped Rs3.79 billion from 368,710 people both in and outside the country, offering two illegal “assurance” and health schemes. Police will present the brothers before the Lalitpur District Court on Sunday.