By Nayak Paudel
Kathmandu, Oct. 11: Police have busted a big racket of robbers, arresting a dozen of those, involved in cheating over millions of rupees from several individuals through fake US dollars exchange scheme in the past nine years.
Organising a press conference at the premises of the Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur, on Friday, the arrested individuals were made public alongside the items seized from them including cash, mobile phones and motorcycles.
Police have arrested 12 individuals of the racket in the past fortnight from different places of Bhaktapur and Kathmandu. Khel Bahadur Tamang, Rel Bahadur Tamang, Shyam Bahadur Tamang, Ram Krishna Tamang and Kanchhi Tamang were arrested on September 25 from Bode, Bhaktapur.
Likewise, Bimal Bhandari and Nirmal Bhandari were arrested on September 29 from Changunarayan; Raj Kumar Tamang was arrested the next day from Jorpati, Kathmandu; and Dhan Bahadur Bhandari was arrested from Madhyapur Thimi on October 6.
Three days later, police arrested Rakesh Bhandari, Kamal Bhandari and Sancha Bahadur Yonjan on October 6 from Kalopati, Bhaktapur.
“All of them have been involved in cheating individuals and robbing their money for past several years. Some of the arrested are the members of the same family and some have even served jail sentence earlier as well,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Keshab Kumar Thebe, spokesperson at Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur.
The arrested ones are also engaged in another profession such as land brokers, truck drivers, taxi drivers and labour workers. According to the police, the racket used to perform their crime in an organised and well-planned manner.
The robbers used to call businessmen, shop owners and foreign returnees in Bhaktapur faking that they knew each other earlier. They would then reveal having a lot of US dollars and would exchange them at lower rates.
When the victim would arrive for the exchange with some cash, only few of them would show up and demonstrate bundles of cash with US dollars on top and back, but normal papers in the middle.
They would then take the Nepali rupees brought by the victims, who would be given US dollars packed in a way that it would take some time to open. The robbers would have already fled when the individuals became aware because a back-up team would be waiting a little ahead on motorcycles.
According to the information provided by Bhaktapur Police, the group’s oldest robbery was on May 2, 2012 where they robbed Rs. 400,000 from Bahrabise, Sindhupalchok. The latest one was on October 6 where they robbed Rs. 400,000 from Town Planning, Bhaktapur.
The group has robbed and cheated millions from several individuals in between this period and the authorities have record of 18 such cases. Authorities have requested others to come forward and inform the police if they were one of the victims.
“Along with the victims from this racket, we request public to not fall for such calls because it would lead to cheating. It is better to inform the police if public received such calls,” said DSP Thebe.
DSP Thebe also informed that some members were still at large and they too would be arrested at the earliest.