Cops loot Indian trader at City hotel

Kathmandu, December 17:

A group of four plain-clothes policemen, including two inspectors, looted Rs 50,000 from an Indian businessman at Hotel Emperor in Sundhara, police said. The two inspectors are: Ramesh Singh of Maharajgunj-based Batallion No 2 of the Nepal Police, and Birendra Thapa of the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Division (MPCD), Hanumandhoka.

Police sources said the four locked Manish Kathuria, the owner of Drishti Entertainment Pvt Ltd in India, inside Room No 303 of the hotel and looted the cash last Thursday.

Kathuria was here to interview Nepali girls to be hired by the company to work as dancers at various hotels in Dubai.

“Khaturia was interviewing the girls when a group of plain-clothes police personnel broke into the room,” a Nepali agent of the company said.

“They (policemen) seized 15 passports of Nepali girls from Kathuria, threatened him and demanded Rs 50,000 from him,” he added. The looters also seized a mobile set from Kathuria and prevented him from talking to anyone during their stay in the hotel. However, after the loot, the policemen returned the passports and the mobile set.

All the guilty police personnel have been taken into custody, a police official at the MPCD.

According to him, lack of first information report (FIR) is hampering their investigation.

“We are waiting the victim to come and file a FIR,” the police official said. “We can forward the case for legal procedures only if there is a FIR filed by the victim. We have asked the victim, who is currently in India, to file the FIR via e-mail if it is not possible for him to come to the police station,” he added.