New Delhi: The Nepal police arrested 122 Chinese nationals from Kathmandu on 23 December for “suspicious” activities that, officials say, include online gambling, financial fraud, cyber crime and violating visa norms. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian over phone from Kathmandu, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Shailesh Thapa Chhetri of the Nepal police, said that of those arrested, 114 were males and eight females. “All those who have been arrested are under investigation by the Central Intelligence Bureau. They are foreigners here. We are checking whether they were engaged in financial crime, cyber fraud and whether they have valid documents or not. They have been sent to five days of custody,” he said.
While responding to The Sunday Guardian’s queries, a top Nepal police official denied allegations that these arrests were made under pressure from the Chinese government and that those who were arrested were “dissenters” who were speaking up against the Chinese government. “It is related to cyber crime and financial fraud,” the official said.
The arrest of these 122 Chinese nationals on Monday is the single-biggest arrest of foreigners in Nepal and comes at a time when the cooperation between Nepal and China is assuming new contours. The Chinese government, according to Nepal-based officials, has “appreciated” this effort of the Nepal police.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Nepal in October this year, Nepal and China had signed a Mutual Legal Assistance on crime as a result of which Nepal can now hand over to China, Chinese citizens who have breached Chinese law, but have not committed a crime on Nepali soil.
Officials said that as of Thursday, passports of only 67 of those who were arrested, were recovered from them, while raids at nine different places in Kathmandu had led to the recovery of 747 mobile phones, 331 laptops, 18 CPUs, 19 monitors, 22 pen drives and 327 SIM cards. The officials said that some of those who have been arrested were on tourist visas while some of them were on student visas.
“Almost all of them are younger than 45 years of age,” the official said. A large number of those who have been arrested had landed in Nepal in August-September, officials said.
Officials said that the development has taken place in close coordination with the Chinese police under the aegis of Interpol and was named as “Charlie Foxter”. “The suspicious activities of these individuals were shared with Nepal’s police officers by the Chinese government during the 88th Interpol General Assembly in Chile held from 15 October to 18 October after which we kept a close watch on them till the time of their arrest on 23 December,” the official said.