Kathmandu, September 5

Two more victims of alleged loan shark Shyam Krishna Sah aka Shyam Pardeshi of Sarlahi district lodged first information reports at District Police Sarlahi against him today, accusing him of fraud. Pardeshi was arrested on Sunday after Rukmini Chaudhary, a resident of Lalbandi Municipality lodged an FIR against him at District Police Office, Sarlahi, accusing him of cheating her.

The victims who lodged FIRs today are Sarlahi residents Rina Sah and Phekani Devi.

Sarlahi Superintendent of Police Gopal Chandra Bhattarai said more and more victims were coming forward to lodge FIRs against Pardeshi. He said his office raided Pardeshi’s home in the district today after the Department of Money Laundering Investigation delegated power to his office to initiate investigation against Pardeshi under anti-money laundering laws. “We raided his home and there has been some progress in our investigation,” he said, adding that his office was searching for documents and other evidences.

Rukmini Chaudhary said she took a loan of Rs 450,000 from Pardeshi for which he made her and her husband sign two separate loan deeds that mentioned both of them took Rs 120,000 loan from Pardeshi. Chaudhary alleged that though she paid Rs 600,000 to Pardeshi he did not destroy the loan deeds.

“I went to Pardeshi when Sarlahi District Court issued arrest warrant against some other people of my village who had already repaid Pardeshi’s loan but were defrauded by him,” she added.

Sonphu Chaudhary, a resident of Lalbandi Municipality, claimed that he had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 and paid Rs 90,000 but Pardeshi did not give him the loan deed back, saying he had kept it at his daughter’s home in India and would give it to him later.

“One day he called me and said he wanted to give me the loan deed. When I went there he pointed a gun at me and forced me to sign another loan deed of Rs 500,000,” Chaudhary alleged. He said the first loan deed mentioned Pardeshi’s daughter Ila Sah as the lender and the second loan deed had his wife Manju Devi Sah as the lender.

Sonphu said Pardeshi filed a case at Sarlahi District Court and the court gave its ruling in his favour. According to Sonphu, Pardeshi filed cases against 300 people of Sarlahi who had taken loan from him and in most of the cases the court gave the ruling in Pardeshi’s favour. “The court has issued a warrant against me. I fled from my home fearing arrest but recently I went to Kathmandu with other victims and met ministers and political leaders. They have told us that they would do something for us and we should not fear arrest. After their assurance, I returned to my home,” Sonphu added.

He said Panchu Chaudhary, a resident of Ishwarpur Municipality of Sarlahi district, who was also a victim of Pardeshi’s usury, went to jail and later took his own life after Pardeshi threatened to sue him again.