Roshan Sedhai

In a classic case of guardians of the law turning lawbreakers, an official at the Tribhuvan International Airport and a police constable robbed a woman returning from Saudi Arabia four weeks ago.

Sita Rai (name changed) on Sunday filed a complaint at the Home Ministry against the duo and said she was sexually abused and robbed of 9,500 riyal (around Rs 218,000). The woman from Bhojpur has named constable Parshu Ram Basnet and senior non-gazetted officer at the Department of Immigra-tion at the TIA, Somnath Khanal, in her complaint. While police on Sunday arrested Basnet, Khanal is at large. Spokesperson at the Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh said Basnet told the police that Khanal fled with the money. Rai landed at the TIA on the night of Nov 21. She was carrying a fake passport, she admitted in her complaint.The official and the policeman at the TIA seized her belongings and travel documents on the pretext of a ‘regular check,’ Rai said. According to her, Basnet then took her to the New Bus Park to drop her. She was, however, forced to spend a night with him at a local guest house, she said.

“He paid all the bills at the guest house and bought a bus ticket to Bhojpur for me and left,” Rai says in her complaint. She realised only later that the official s actually stole her money. “He paid for everything to make sure that I didn’t reach for my purse,” she says. MoHA Secretary Navin Kumar Ghimire has formed a panel led by joint secretary Bhola Siwakoti to look into the case.

Published on: 18 December 2012 | The Kathmandu Post