KATHMANDU, JULY 13

A 42-year-old Chinese national, Liang Ju aka Johansson, has been arrested for duping people and taking them hostage in the name of sending them for foreign employment in Thailand.

The victims were taken hostage in Myanmar and forced to engage in online scam.

Originally from Gyansu Province of China and currently staying at Bijeshwori of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the Chinese national was involved in duping people by luring them with jobs in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. He also forced the victims to engage in online scamming. In response to a complaint filed against him, a team mobilised from the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau, Babarmahal, arrested him.

Liang was learnt to have taken Nepali people to Myanmar and involved them forcefully in online scams. They were taken hostage and tortured physically and mentally.

When the victims wanted to return home, he demanded ransom, said police, adding that the victims were allowed to return home only after submitting ransom.

They were trafficked to Myanmar on 25 July 2022 while luring them with the promise to take them to Thailand and involving in the job of computer typing, according to police investigation.

Liang had been visiting Nepal since 2018 on visitor and student visa. A gang, including Liang, had invested in various businesses.

They used to seize Nepali people's passports and mobile phones and take them hostage after reaching Myanmar. Moreover, they were forced to work for 18 to 20 hours a day on social networking sites for the purpose of scamming.

The Police headquarters shared the information that Liang's gang had been defrauding American people by making fake ID. The Americans were lured to invest in crypto-currency, bitcoin, and the like.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.