Kathmandu: Nepal is turning out to be a gateway for Chinese criminals and the Himalayan nation has raised concern over the increasing involvement of Chinese nationals in illegal activities.
On April 22, a joint team from the Department of Immigration and Nepal Police raided a house in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, and arrested 22 Chinese nationals, reported The Annapurna Express (ApEx).
Strangely, at the time this news was largely ignored by Nepal's major news outlets and details about the incident remain obscure to this day.
ApEx learned that authorities had been tipped about suspicious activities in the house and the suspects had been caught with 35 laptops, 675 mobile phones, and 760 SIM cards issued by Nepal Telecom and NCell. The Chinese nationals are suspected to be part of a syndicate involved in cross-border online betting. However, neither the immigration agency nor the police have the right technology and manpower to confirm their suspicion, reported ApEx.
With no firm ground to charge the suspects, all 22 were released a day later on the condition of helping the authorities with the investigation.
The immigration department has confiscated their passports to prevent them from leaving the country. Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, Director-General at the Department of Immigration, said that investigation is being pursued with the assistance of the police.
"The suspects had entered Nepal on business visas. We also found that one of them had overstayed his visa," said Bhattarai adding, "We are still trying to find out the nature of their activities here in Nepal."
The laptops and mobile phones seized from the Chinese nationals have been sent to the Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory. The digital forensic report of these devices will be crucial in the investigation.
The increasing involvement of Chinese nationals in illegal activities has become a serious cause for concern for the authorities in Nepal.
This was evident when the authorities arrested 122 Chinese nationals, also with similar equipment, in December 2019 for their alleged involvement in criminal activities. Among other things, they are suspected of running Ponzi schemes online and scamming foreign nationals with lures of easy loans. The immigration department is responsible for investigating crimes perpetrated by foreigners.
But the department has been unable to fulfil this responsibility due to a manpower crunch. Even the police seem to lack expertise in effectively investigating foreigners' suspicious illegal activities. And when it comes to crimes committed through the misuse of technology, they are woefully incompetent, reported ApEx. —ANI
