KATHMANDU, July 14: A 42-year-old Chinese national, Liang Ju, who identified himself as Johansson, has been arrested for duping people and taking them hostage in the name of sending them for a job in Thailand.

The victims were taken hostage in Myanmar and forced to participate in an online scam.

Originally from Gyansu Province of China and currently staying at Bijeshwori of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-15, the Chinese national was involved in duping people by luring them of jobs in Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. He also involved the victims in online scamming.

In response to a complaint filed against him, a team mobilized from the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau, Babarmahal, arrested him from Kathmandu.

Liang is learnt to have taken Nepalis to Myanmar and involved them forcefully in an online scam. They were taken hostage and tortured physically and mentally. When the victims wanted to return home, he demanded ransom, the police shared the information, adding that after submitting the ransom, the victims were allowed to return home.

They were trafficked to Myanmar on July 25, 2022 while luring them to be taken to Thailand and involved in the job of computer typing, according to police investigation.

Liang had been visiting Nepal since 2018 on visitor and student visa. A gang including Liang had invested in various businesses. They used to seize Nepalis' passports and mobile phones and take them captive after reaching Myanmar. Moreover, they were forced to work for 18 to 20 hours a day on social networking sites for scamming.

Nepal Police Headquarters shared the information that Liang's gang was defrauding the US nationals by making fake IDs. The US nationals were lured to invest in crypto-currency and bitcoin.

Search for others involved in the crimes has been intensified, the Police Headquarters added.

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