Key Takeaways:
- Four suspects remanded to judicial custody in three trafficking cases
- Victims subjected to confinement, abuse, exploitation; one rescued with help of tourist
- Kathmandu District Court ordered custody; investigations ongoing
Four people have been remanded to judicial custody in connection with three separate cases involving human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation, the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau (AHTB) of Nepal Police said Wednesday.
According to the bureau, the cases involve two Bangladeshi nationals accused of trafficking and sexually assaulting a woman after luring her to Nepal with a false job offer, a Nepali man accused of coercing a woman into commercial sex work at a spa in Kathmandu, and a Nepali woman accused of trafficking another woman to the Maldives under the pretext of arranging employment in Qatar.
In the first case, Bangladeshi nationals Md Ujjal Miya, 38, and Manik Khan, 43, allegedly lured a woman to Kathmandu in February with a false job offer. Police said she was confined for four days in a Thamel hotel, sexually assaulted, and threatened with video recordings of the abuse. She was later forced to work without pay at a garment factory in Tarkeshwar Municipality. Both men were arrested separately and remanded by the Kathmandu District Court.
In the second case, police arrested Dipak alias Dirgha Bahadur Shrestha, 52, of Sindhupalchok, accused of coercing a woman into commercial sex work at a spa in Paknajol, Kathmandu, between mid-December 2025 and mid-January 2026. He has also been remanded to custody.
The third case involves Subina Gurung alias Rammaya Gurung, 43, of Okhaldhunga, accused of trafficking a woman under the pretext of arranging a hotel job in Qatar. Instead, the victim was taken via Delhi to the Maldives, where she was sold to a hotel owner for Rs 400,000, confined, abused and forced into sexual services. She eventually returned to Nepal with the help of an Indian tourist. Gurung has been remanded to custody following investigation.
The AHTB said further investigation into all three cases is underway.
