KATHMANDU, March 26: Police have apprehended 11 Indian nationals involved in online gambling (betting) and cryptocurrency transactions totaling over Rs two billion.
According to the Kathmandu Police Range (DPR), a joint team of police officers arrested the suspects from a house in Deula Tole, Budhanilkantha Municipality, at approximately 5:15 pm on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, the team raided the rented property and caught the individuals engaged in an online betting operation and cryptocurrency transactions. Initial investigations revealed that the group had been involved in online gambling with transactions exceeding Rs 2 billion and had been dealing with cryptocurrency worth over Rs 9.63 million.
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The arrested individuals, aged between 19 and 28, all hail from Rajasthan, India. They include Sunny Meena (24), Mohit Verma (25), Piyush Bharadwaj (26), Harkesh Dadeya (25), Nishant Bharadwaj (22), Akash Verma (23), Ankit Kumar Saini (19), Sanju Shakla (23), Ramsingh Jath (28), Lokesh Kumar (19), and Vikash Kumar (19). Upon their arrest, police seized several items, including 34 mobile phones, five laptops, four notebooks containing financial records, 14 Indian bank checkbooks, 27 ATM cards, and 40 SIM cards.
The Kathmandu District Court has granted the police a seven-day remand to further investigate the case. Authorities are looking into the extensive illegal online gambling and cryptocurrency transactions the suspects were allegedly involved in.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Apil Raj Bohara, spokesperson for the DPR, informed Republica that the arrested individuals belong to the lower echelons of the scam operation. He added that the police are facing challenges in advancing the investigation as the suspects are withholding the identities of their bosses.
“They have been using messaging platforms like Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, and WeChat to communicate with the masterminds of this operation but are refusing to reveal their identities, even under police interrogation,” SP Bohara said. “We know that they have been sending money to India, but we have yet to trace the location or identity of the recipients.”
SP Bohara also mentioned that the scammers appear to be specifically targeting Indian nationals, particularly facilitating bets on ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. “While they seem to have an international clientele, their focus remains on India,” he said. “They are facilitating online bets for the IPL matches.”
