More Indian criminals being nabbed in Nepal

More Indian criminals being nabbed in Nepal

• DIG Kesh Bahadur Shahi, chief of Central Investigation Bureau, says open Indo-Nepal border is to blame for this

KATHMANDU, JUN 23 -

An increasing number of Indian criminal s are being arrested across the country, mainly in border areas, says the Nepal Police data.

Police have already arrested 375 Indians this year, while the total arrests last fiscal year were 349, according to the police headquarters figures. The arrests range from cases of theft, robbery and smuggling to heinous crimes such as murder and kidnapping.

According to police, out of 375 arrests this year, a large majority of the arrestees were nabbed in Tarai districts based on complaints. However, an equal or more number of criminal cases reportedly goes unaccounted as even if an investigation shows an increasing arrest of Indian criminal s in Nepal, police fail to arrest many of them as they cross the border after committing crimes here.

“A recent case in point could be the Indian criminal s’ involvement in the murder of former lawmaker Sadrul Miya Haque in Rautahat,” said an official requesting anonymity. ‘Contract killers’ from across the border Mohammad Jamirool Seikh and Anul Seikh, who were found to be directly involved in Haque’s gruesome murder, have reached their hideout in India.

DIG Kesh Bahadur Shahi, head of the Central Investigation Bureau, which carried out a successful investigation into the Haque murder, says open Indo-Nepal border is to blame for the increasing number of crimes committed by Indian criminal s. “It is easier for them to come to Nepal and escape after committing crimes,” he said. “Besides that, another simple reason could be the easy availability of hired criminal s in India.”

DIG Shahi sees two different patterns of Indians’ involvement in crimes. “While a section of Indian criminal s arrested here were found to have been hired by Nepali nationals, others were found attracted to petty crimes such as thefts and robberies on their own will.”

Apart from criminal cases related to kidnapping, dacoity, murder and others in Tarai districts, there have been a number of instances, wherein Indian nationals have been found committing crimes in Kathmandu.

For instance, seven members of Bihar’s infamous ‘Shutter Todwa’ gang were busted in Kathmandu’s Bouddha last month. In May this year, India’s most wanted criminal Babloo Dubey aka Mithilesh Dubey, charged of multiple murders, was arrested from Kathmandu.

In July 2012, Bijay Gupta, a hardware shopkeeper in Balaju of the Capital, who also possessed a fake Nepali citizenship, hired three sharp shooters from Bihar to execute a robbery at a jewellery shop.  In another high profile smuggling case last year, which also led to the permanent suspension of SSP Ravi Raj Shrestha from the police service, an Indian national Binod Soni was arrested while trying to board a plane to Dubai with illegal currencies of nine different countries amounting to Rs 12.4 million.

“Nepal is an easy destination for Indian theft rings,” said SSP Hemanta Pal, spokesperson of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s Office (MPCO), Ranipokhari. According to him, the most Indian nationals in the metropolis are arrested on the charge of thefts. “Various factors ranging from people’s modern lifestyle, to easy access to the Capital city from bordering areas can be the reasons behind that.”

According to DIG Kedar Saud, head of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of Nepal Police, the involvement of Indian nationals in trafficking of various kinds of narcotics, have gone high in the last couple of years. NCB data says over 150 Indian nationals have been arrested in the last five years on the charges of drug smuggling.

Separately, on charges of drug smuggling, police arrested nearly 250 individuals in the last two years. The recent Indian drugs smugglers nabbed are Bhola Patel and Raju Ahir Yadav, both from India’s Bihar. Patel was held while transporting 100gm brown sugar to Kathmandu from Raxaul and Yadav was arrested with 152gm heroine from Kalanki in March this year.

According to the police data, apart from drug trafficking, involvements of Indian nationals in murder and theft are also high. While 43 Indians were arrested on murder charges last year, the number has reached 47 this year. The number of Indians arrested on kidnapping charges is 35 in the last two years.

Similarly, 48 persons have already been arrested for theft this fiscal year. Other arrests are related to various forms of crimes, including fraud, fake documentation, dacoity, human trafficking. “The problem is bigger than it usually looks,” said a police official requesting anonymity. “This issue has to be addressed at the policy level.”