The racket, whose network extends to Nepal and which extorted money from the families of the hostages, freed the two after Turkish police started hunting them down, investigative officials said. [break]
Narayan Kumar Shrestha, 20, of Maghapauwa-2 in Dolakha district and Lava Rai, 27, of Suryamati-4 in Nuwakot were taken to India on November 11, 2008 and then to Turkey with a promise of reaching them to England. However, once they were said to have reached Turkey, the racketeers started extorting from their families, which had already paid out more than Rs 1.3 million each.
Narayan is said to have enjoyed complete police protection in the Turkish city of Istanbul and he is also in the process of returning home. But Lava is not yet known to have contacted local police for help.
"Narayan contacted a local professor as recommended by Honorary Consul for Turkey CP Khetan and succeeded in finding refuge with the police. But we do not know why Lava did not seek help from police there," said Ganesh Shrestha, central member of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), which facilitated matters for the victims´ families.
According to Shrestha, the families did not end up paying any extra amount to the racketeers. Narayan´s father Buddhinarayan had had frequent calls from Turkey from the first week of December, 2009 urging him to transfer 3,000 euros to save his son.
Meanwhile, local point man of the racket Bal Krishna Shrestha was released on bail of Rs 200,000 Thursday by Kathmandu District Court. Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) had registered a case against him for human trafficking and four others involved, sources said.
MPRK had arrested Bal Krishna after three youths including Gyanendra Kumar Shrestha, a cousin of Narayan, who escaped from the clutches of the racket and returned home in October, 2009, lodged a complaint against him.
Gyanendra was taken to India on February 11, 2009 with two others, Ram Kumar Rai and Ananda Shrestha. After loitering in New Delhi for a month, he was flown to Georgia via Ukraine but immigration authorities there deported him within hours. After landing back in New Delhi, he hung around till November and returned home upon learning about the plight of his cousin in Turkey.
Accused Bal Krishna Shrestha, 32, who is said to be the Kathmandu agent of the human trafficking ring, is from Nayapati-2, Kathmandu. According to members of the victims´ families, Bal Krishna first befriended Narayan and Lava when they visited his village where they had friends and relatives. "The modus operandi of the racket was to victimize them through cultivation of personal relations," said a police officer.
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