Kathmandu, November 15

Police have requested the Department of Money Laundering Investigation to probe assets of 23 suppliers of construction materials after they were suspected of amassing wealth through illegal means.

On October 18, Metropolitan Police Crime Division had arrested them from different places of Kathmandu for allegedly defrauding their clients while supplying bricks, pebbles, sand and stones.

The arrestees were Prakash Shrestha, Birendra Kuinkel, Arjun Bhujel, Dipendra KC, Badri Giri, Suk Bahadur Lama aka Baghe, Surendra KC, Prakash Bhandari, Raju Thapa, Maheshwor Shrestha, Santosh Kunwar, Shyam Bahadir Magar, Pushkar Thapa, Biddhiraj Thapa Magar, Madan Pradhan, Top Narayan Shrestha, Arjun Shrestha, Krishnahari Nagarkoti, Manohar Shrestha, Bhog Bahadur Tamang aka Bijay, Gopal Bhandari, Singha Bahadur Tamang and Ram Krishna Shrestha.

Baghe, an alleged gangster, is a repeat offender. Earlier, he was arrested for extorting money from businesspersons and real estate agents in Swoyambhu and Balaju areas. On July 2016, police had held him for robbing a Tibetan person of Rs 1.1 million from Bouddha area.

MPCD has already submitted a case file to the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, for their trial at Kathmandu District Court on fraud charge. Senior Superintendent of Police Sahakul Thapa, MPCD in-charge, said the DMLI was requested in writing to verify the legitimacy of the property owned by the suppliers of construction materials.

“As the investigation into the case showed that they had accumulated wealth through illegal means, we urged the DMLI to probe the source of their assets,” he said.

Acting on complaints, a special team assigned by MTPD had rounded up the suppliers along with their loaded trucks and tippers from their depots. The suppliers had been delivering less quantity of construction materials on trucks and tippers. According to MPCD, the suppliers were found to have made up to five-inch thick iron, concrete or wooden floor on the bed of the trucks and tipper to swindle the clients.

The bed of the trucks and tipper had holding capacity of only 82.62 cubic feet of construction materials against their original capacity of 100 cubic feet. The unethical business practice of the suppliers incurred a loss ranging from Rs 1,620 to Rs 2,200 to the clients per shipment of construction materials.