It was not long before it dawned on her that she had looted after being drugged with the fruit juice that she had taken about 25 minutes earlier at the request of a woman in her forties and two men.
She was not the only woman to find herself in such a miserable predicament of late. In the last few months, several other women and elder citizens have gone to the police with similar complaints. However, the police were clueless about the culprits, who operated by drugging their victims with Lorazepam, a type of drug often used as a sedative. [break]
Metropolitan Police Circle New Baneshwor Office, assisted by Crime Division, was able to nab four of the culprits with the help of a mobile phone that one of them dropped and Tuna Kumari was able to pick up and hide even as she was beginning to lose consciousness.
She said, "One of the men, who asked me to get in the taxi, dropped his mobile inside the vehicle and I picked it up surreptitiously and hid it."
Tuna Kumari had come to Kathmandu to attend her brother´s wedding.
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Victims who were drugged and looted of jewelry and other items in the capital.
Using call details in the mobile phone, police nabbed four of the gang, but two others are still at large. The arrested are Prakash Basnet, 25, of Pipal Danda-3, Kumar Basnet, 56, of Chautara-9 and Kumar Prasad Khatiwada, 27, of Votechaur, all in Sinhupalchok district, and Rajendra Singh, 44, of Kathmandu, the last involved in buying the looted gold jewelry.
DSP Bhim Prasad Dhakal, chief of Baneshwor police, said, "We had several similar complaints in the capital and most victims were women from rural areas and elder citizens." Preliminary investigation proved that the same group was involved in looting over a dozen people in the last few months, he added.
Sita karki, 54, of Dhading was looted on March 11 while going from Kalanki to Sanepa. She had come to Kathmandu to meet her children, who are studying here. Her necklace, finger ring, earrings, Rs 43,000 in cash, a watch and some mustard oil, ghee and honey that she was carrying were all looted. She was offered a cup of tea laced with the drug and later dropped off at her children´s rented quarters.
Similarly, Sabitri Bhandari, 65, of Thansingh-3 in Nuwakot was looted from Balaju area by the same group on Nov 17 last year. She was dropped off near Siddi Binayek Hospital. Others looted are Rama Kumari Malla, 60, of Baglung, Dev Kumari Thapa, 60, of Gothatar and Kamala Thapa, 45, of Basantapur, according to police.
DSP Dhakal said police seized Rs 114 thousand, some gold jewelry, ladies´ wrist watches, mobile phones and 70 drug tablets from the gang.
The woman in her forties, the main accused who is still on the run, has a three-storey building in the capital and is yet to be arrested, police said. "I request people not to take anything offered by strangers and to be more careful while moving about wearing valuable jewerly," he said adding that they should complain at the nearest police post if they see any suspicion activity.
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