Shuvam Dhungana

Police on Saturday arrested two men, one of them an Indian national, suspected of operating a hundi (illegal money transfer) service in Kathmandu, and seized over Rs 2.4 million in cash from them.

Acting on a tip off, Metropolitan Police Beat, Kalimati, arrested Rupesh Kumar Gupta, 39, a resident of Motihari, India, living in Lalitpur and Sagar Shrestha, 35 a resident of Baglung currently living in New Baneshwor.

“Of the total seized amount, over 600,000 was recovered from Gupta while remaining 1.8 million was confiscated from Shrestha,” said Deputy Superintendent Rugam Kunwar, chief at Metropolitan Police Beat, Kalimati.

“The arrestees were found to have been involved in running hundi and further investigation into the case is underway,” said Kunwar. “The duo have been kept at the Kalimati Police station. They will be handed over to the Revenue Investigation Department for further investigation.”

Hundi is an informal money transfer system that uses closed networks to transfer cash without actually doing a cross-border transaction. Brokers in two different countries facilitate the money transfer through a mutual agreement. One receives cash from the remitter and the other hands it out to the beneficiary allotted by the remitter.

Although crime rates in the Kathmandu Valley have dropped significantly during the lockdown, police continue to receive complaints. “We have seen crimes such as banking offences and suicides even during the lockdown,” said Superintendent Hobindra Bogati, spokesperson for Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range.

More than 5,000 police personnel have been mobilised throughout the Valley to enforce the lockdown. Most of the cases police have been dealing with in the recent weeks are related to lockdown violations.

Published on: 3 May 2020 | The Kathmandu Post