KATHMANDU, JUNE 15

Police said they have finally busted a chain of operators who worked as main focal persons for online gambling in the country through an online betting platform called 1xBet.

1xBet is an online betting platform in which people of countries where betting for sports is legal put their money for gambling. The very popular source of betting in foreign countries, however, had become an uphill task for police to control as betting is illegal in Nepal.

In the last couple of years, police had been making sporadic arrests of people involved in betting. However, this time police said they were able to break the nexus as the main focal person in the betting racket has been finally apprehended.

Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office yesterday made public six accused perpetrators, including Dinesh Khadka, 29, of Kailali whom the police has referred as a focal person of the 1XBet operators in the country.

He was found to be making transaction of Rs 647 million through gambling. Police said he had operated illegal gambling through over 60 different user names and had used various Connect IPS apps that allows one to operate websites that are banned by the government.

He was also found to be operating cryptocurrency to transfer money to foreigners, which is also illegal in Nepal. Police also arrested his wife Anita Dhital for being an accomplice in his illegal activities. Police have gathered multiple evidences from mobile phones of the couple that showed they made financial transactions with the pseudo names they used for operating the betting. Messages from app operators and bitcoin transactions were evidences. Another person Dipesh Shrestha, 27, of Bhaktapur was arrested for transacting over Rs 44 million. Dinesh Chand, 25, of Kathmandu was also arrested for making transaction of Rs 4.5 million, while Aashish Lamichhane, 24, of Nuwakot was arrested with proof of having transacted Rs 29 million.

Surprisingly, police today arrested two popular comedians Marichman Shrestha, popularly known as Balchi Dhurbe, and Raju Poudel aka Raju Master in connection with the same offence. Police said they were arrested from Swoyambhu area and were held for supporting illegal betting through various promotional videos in social media.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 16, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.