KATHMANDU, AUGUST 14

Nepal Police has been able to arrest a person, who was on the wanted list for banking fraud and document forgery after Interpol brought him out from his hideout in Portugal.

Police have arrested Kedar Dhungana, 43, who was sentenced to 10- year imprisonment and charged a fine of Rs 700,000 in 10 separate cases by Kathmandu District Court on 4 January 2021. He was accused of creating fake government documents, and taking vehicle loan from a bank worth over Rs 20.71 million. Dhungana and his 12 accomplices had taken much of the loan amount from different branch offices of Dev Development Bank in Kathmandu and in Lalitpur.

The bank came to know about the fraud only after Dhungana did not pay interest on the loan amount taken in 2018. When the bank tired to auction the vehicles Dhungana had bought with the loan amount, the bank came to know that Dhungana had never bought any vehicle with the loan taken from the bank, said police.

The bank had, in December 2018, reported the incident to the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police seeking the arrest of Dhungana, who was already at large. In this connection a total of 15 cases (five cases with Lalitpur District Court and 10 cases with Kathmandu District Court) were filed against the 13 individuals, including Dhungana. Later, the KDC ordered a jail term of one year and fine of Rs 70,000 for each case against all the 13 offenders.

The 'mastermind' of the fraud scam, Dhungana, however, had already left the country and flown to the UAE before police could arrest and produce him at the court. He had then gone to Portugal and was hiding there.

Luckily, CIB after receiving complaint, had issued a diffusion notice in January 2019. Later the diffusion was turned into a Red notice in May this year.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 15 2021, of The Himalayan Times.