KATHMANDU: Nepal Police on Thursday arrested eight people alleged to be involved in the attempted trafficking and confinement of 11 Indian nationals who were rescued from the capital on Wednesday evening.
At a press conference on Thursday, the Kathmandu Police Range, which led the rescue operation, presented those charged with holding Indian nationals hostage and falsely promising to facilitate their journey to the US.
“A few days ago, we got information from various sources, and upon analysing the information, we rescued 11 Indian nationals from a house in Ratopul (Kathmandu). We rescued them from that rented home and kept them at a hotel after the rescue,” Bhupendra Khatri, Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathmandu Police Range, told the media.
A police team from the Kathmandu Police Range successfully rescued 11 Indian nationals who were reportedly brought to Kathmandu by a human trafficking racket, lured with promises of sending them to the US.
The special police team conducted the rescue operation last night in the Ratopul area, according to Chief of Kathmandu Police Range SSP Bhupendra Khatri.
Those arrested were identified as Indra Singh Yadav, Nipun Gupta, Charanjit Singh, Ashok Kumar, Abdul Rahim, Manish Kumar Malhotra, Ravi Mewade, and Ramchandra Sharma.
“Those people who have come into our contact claiming themselves to be the victims (of attempted trafficking), they’ve come to Nepal via airways from Dubai, Qatar, India, and the UAE to enter the United States of America. Those involved in sending people illegally, some of the members are said to be in India as well as in Mexico and each Indian Citizen who wants to go USA has to pay about four to four and a half million (Indian Currency) and upon arriving in Kathmandu, they’re supposed to pay USD 3,000 and handover their passport to the agents,” SSP Khatri added.
The SSP mentioned that the police will conduct investigations into charges related to human trafficking, transportation, and kidnapping, including holding individuals hostage.
The mastermind behind this operation, according to the police, is Indra Singh Yadav.
The hostages were reportedly coerced into asking for additional funds from their families by being shown manipulated visuals, falsely indicating that they had reached Mexico. The Kathmandu Police Range revealed that the victims were pressured to request money from their families, claiming that the cost per person to be sent to the US required INR 4 million. (ANI)