Manpower agents cheating youths trying for foreign employment

Kathmandu, May 9

Metropolitan Police Crime Division arrested 686 persons, including 69 women, for their alleged involvement in criminal and civil offences in Kathmandu valley over a period of one year.

Senior Superintendent of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh said 448 cases were filed against crime suspects during the period. Number of arrestees exceed total cases filed at the court as more than one persons were involved in the same crimes.

MPCD recorded 35 crimes ranging from petty to heinous. Among major offences, it filed 85 cases of cybercrime against 93 persons, including seven women. SSP Singh said cheating, blackmailing, phishing, identity theft, hacking, spreading hate and inciting violence, circulating lewd photos and videos and cyber grooming were major forms of cybercrime reported to the law enforcement agency.

Around 60 per cent of the alleged victims were women and unemployed youths. Most of the cases are settled through reconciliation between the concerned parties, provided they are not of serious nature.

“Social networking sites have become a tool for serving the interest of scammers. Bringing the culprits to book is next to impossible for police unless a victim categorically identifies the suspect,” he said.

MPCD filed 107 fraud cases against 93 persons during the period.

Most of them, mainly educational consultancies and manpower companies were found to have been involved in cheating unemployed youths of cash on the pretext of sending them abroad for foreign employment or higher studies.

Lack of knowledge on safe migration for work, poor orientation, and aspirants’ inability to check the reliability of agencies and agents are some of the reasons for unemployed youths being cheated, MPCD said.

MPCD recently arrested a woman for allegedly defrauding several unemployed youths. Bimala Thapa, 34, of Bhojpur was taken into custody acting on a complaint lodged by victims. MPCD said she had swindled Mohammad Rayan and Sabir Rayan of Dhanusha of Rs 440,000 with a promise to send them to Dubai for decent employment.

Thapa, an employee at Pinglasthan-based Compass Recruitment Manpower Company, took the victims into confidence, saying she would obtain working visa in Dubai for them and collected the cash. She, however, provided tourist visa and asked them to fly for Dubai for ‘foreign employment.’ The Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport on March 25 did not permit them to fly for Dubai citing lack of valid documents.

Twelve murder cases were reported in the past one year. MPCD arrested 17 murder suspects for legal action. Animosity, monetary temptation and dispute over mutual distrust were some leading causes behind murder incidents reported in the valley. MPCD registered three cases of human trafficking and filed charges against five trafficking suspects.