Anup Ojha

On February 25, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), in coordination with the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur arrested Chinese national Yang Limping, 49, from Bungmati.

Yang, a permanent resident of Xiamen in China’s Fujian province was arrested on the charge of holding three girls aged 13, 14 and 17 hostage and sexually abusing them in his rented apartment at Bungamati in Lalitpur. All three were rescued. Police also rescued four other minors whom Yang had kept at a Thamel-based hotel on the same day.

Police hunted down the Chinese national after the mother of one of the hostages filed a missing persons complaint at the Area Police Station in Urlabari, Jhapa.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Siddhi Bikram Shah, who is also the in-charge of the District Police Office, Lalitpur, said a case has been filed at the Lalitpur District Court against the Chinese for raping a minor.

Yang’s is just the latest case in a series of crimes involving Chinese nationals. A few months ago, on December 22, the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau of the Nepal Police nabbed two Chinese agents—Chen Yang, 30, a permanent resident of Sichuan, China from Kathmandu’s Thamel area, and Ruan Chaohong, 33, of Fujian, from the Tribhuvan International Airport.

They were arrested on the charge of trafficking three Nepali women to a Laos-based call centre involved in catfishing—swindling rich people online by befriending them using a fake identity. The victims said their job was to lure rich English-speaking people online. After escaping their Chinese employer in Laos, three Nepali women had shared their harrowing tale with the Post.

Currently, the two Chinese are at the Central Jail, Sundhara as they are being investigated for human trafficking, according to the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau Babarmahal.

Every year, dozens of foreigners are arrested in Nepal for their alleged involvement in various crimes.

According to the Nepal Police Headquarters, 92 foreign nationals from at least 20 countries have been charged with various criminal activities this fiscal year alone. Police have lodged cases against 27 Indian citizens and 22 Chinese among others this year.

Police say the number of Indian nationals involved in crimes in Nepal could be more compared to the Chinese, but the former escape arrest in many cases owing to the open border and taking advantage of linguistic and cultural similarities.

“But among third country nationals, more Chinese are being arrested for their involvement in criminal activities here,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Dipendra GC, co-spokesman at Nepal Police Headquarters in Naxal.

Also, records at Nepal Police Headquarters show that compared to Indian nationals, Chinese are involved in more serious crimes such as murder and organised crimes. Police have this year filed murder cases against two Chinese, while there are no such cases against other foreign nationals.

This fiscal year’s police data show Indian nationals top the list of foreigners arrested for their involvement in criminal activities followed by Chinese nationals. Of the total 27 Indians arrested this fiscal year, 13 have been charged with customs evasion, and five with dealing in counterfeit currency. Other crimes involving Indian nationals are dealing in contraband drugs, extortion, kidnapping, and forgery, among others.

Likewise, a total of 22 Chinese nationals were arrested for various crimes this year—two have been charged with murder, eight with smuggling in contraband drugs, five with organised crimes, one with rape, one with hostage-taking, three have been charged with misbehaviour, and two with overstaying the visa.

Thai nationals came third with five arrested for drug smuggling and one for dealing in counterfeit currency this year.

In total, police have charged a total of 92 cases against the citizens of 20 countries this fiscal year.

In the last fiscal year 2021-22, police arrested a total of 108 foreigners from 41 countries. Among them, 31, the largest number, were Indians, followed by 16 Chinese and 13 Bangladeshis.

Likewise, in 2020-2021, a total of 30 foreigners from 14 various countries were arrested. The crimes they were charged with included smuggling, forgery, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. One American and one French national were arrested on paedophilia charges.

“Those were pandemic years, so there was very less mobility of foreigners. But compared to other countries that needed visas to visit Nepal, the number of Chinese citizens involved in crime was higher in 2020-21,” said GC.

Police officials said most common crimes involving foreigners are drugs smuggling, gold smuggling, forgery, sexual abuses, paedophilia and human trafficking.

And with Indians customs evasion is the most common crime.

Interestingly, police data point out that the number of Chinese nationals committing crimes in Nepal has been increasing markedly in recent years.

Last year, police raided a call centre at Tinkune run jointly by a Chinese and an Indian citizen.

In January 2019, police had arrested 122 Chinese nationals from different parts of Kathmandu for their alleged involvement in suspicious activities. In September of the same year, police had arrested five Chinese nationals on the charge of hacking bank data and stealing millions of rupees from automated teller machines (ATMs) of various banks in Kathmandu.

Published on: 13 March 2023 | The Kathmandu Post