Kathmandu, August 26

Police have arrested a man who siphoned off hefty sums from unsuspecting persons with the false promise of lucrative jobs at home and abroad.

Bhag Chandra Mahar, 47, of Chhinchu-2, presently residing at Naya Bazaar used to contact unemployed people through his associates masquerading as a ‘high profile socialite with good rapport with the prime ministers of Nepal and India, leaders of political parties, chief justice, Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank and many other big shots in the country and abroad’.

SSP Sarbendra Khanal, in-charge of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, said undercover cops apprehended Mahar today after it received complaints from the alleged victims. “The suspect defrauded Rajesh Roka, Thaman Bahadur Roka and Dilip Budhathoki of Myagdi of Rs 15,000 each by promising them US visa within one month of the payment,” he informed. After the trio realised they had been duped, they sought police help.

Mahar was operating the fraud racket under the cloak of Teku-based ‘Central Investigation Security Force Pvt Ltd’, that too was unregistered with the Office of Company Registrar, for the past two years. In yet another case, he cheated Som Bahadur Tamang of Sindhuli of Rs 300,000 with the promise of a job in Russia.

Police have confiscated a cache of documents, Rs 198,000 and his photographs ‘posed with big shots’. He used to crop the head of someone else posing with Nepali and Indian prime ministers, political leaders and high-level government officials’ and replace them with his own ‘photos to make them look real’. “His modus operandi was to take gullible persons into confidence by showing the photographs hung at his office and dupe them,” SSP Khanal informed.

He appealed to all to report to MPCD if they were cheated by Mahar. “We encourage people not to keep the case secret and to cooperate with police to investigate his involvement in other criminal cases, if any,” SSP Khanal said.