By Nayak Paudel
Kathmandu, Feb. 23: Police on Monday and Tuesday arrested a total of 116 Nepali youths from two different offices operated by two Chinese nationals in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur.
The Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) raided an office in New Baneshwor on Monday night and arrested a Chinese national and 36 Nepalis working for him.

“A preliminary investigation showed that the office was using applications to provide loans. It seems the loanees are Indian nationals. We are yet to understand the works of the office but it is certain it is something illegal,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sudip Giri.

SSP Giri, who is also the chief at MPRK, stated that the Chinese national, whose name is not disclosed yet for investigation reasons, operated the office by registering it in the name of a Nepali national.
According to SSP Giri, investigating the devices (laptops and computers) seized from the office with the help of computer experts was underway.

“We will disseminate the details once we complete our basic investigation to identify what they were doing specifically,” SSP Giri told The Rising Nepal.
Meanwhile, a similar raid in Bhaktapur by the Metropolitan Police Range Bhaktapur (MPRB) on Tuesday have revealed some details.

The MPRB raided a three-storey rented house in Sano Thimi where an office was being operated by a Chinese national identified as Wangzinao, 29. He lived in room number 1206 of Sun City Apartment.
A total of 80 Nepalis – 47 females and 33 males – were also detained from the office.

The police also seized 14 desktops, 48 laptops and two iPads from the office, which authorities said to be a ‘call centre’.
“Nepali youths aged 18-25 years were the employees and they were hired on the basis of their computer knowledge. Their work was to threaten the loanees who didn’t return the money in time. The loanees were Indians,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Raju Pandey.

While the MPRK hasn’t yet disclosed the details of the work conducted by the Chinese national in New Baneshwor, investigating officers stressed that the two offices could be operating in similar nature.
“We had received a tip-off regarding the office in Sano Thimi. We even deployed a couple of our officers to work as employees in the office. They worked there for around a week and we raided it after we collected information of their work,” said DSP Pandey, who is also the information officer for MPRB.

The office had some connection through which they provided loans in small amount (IRs. 5,000-10,000) to Indian nationals through an application. The loanee needed to fill a loan form where s/he had to fill all the sought information.

“If an individual sought a loan of IRs. 10,000, s/he would be provided only IRs. 8,000 but they had to pay back IRs. 10,000 with an expensive interest. If a loanee couldn’t pay back the loan in requested time, an interest rate of IRs. 20 per 1,000 daily was charged,” said DSP Pandey.

It was then when the Nepali employees came in handy. Nepali youths were directed to call the loanees and threaten them in various ways so that they paid back.
“An employee was given Rs. 15,000 in salary. They were not allowed to go outside the office once they entered for the 10-5 shift. They were provided with food by the office. Bonus was also given to the employee based on the money they could help the office collect,” DSP Pandey told The Rising Nepal.

According to the senior police officers, the two offices revealed a new form of illegal cross-border digital business operating from Nepal.
The officers informed that they were investigating by looking into the ways the offices conducted their transactions and the details of the Chinese nationals and that the involvement of the employees would also be ascertained once the investigation reaches a conclusion.

“We will reveal everything once we dig out the overall details. We are not sure of many things yet but many more aspects will be exposed. We are also consulting with legal experts,” said DSP Pandey. SSP Giri also echoed the same.