“My family had to come up with that hefty amount within two days. The initial demand was three times the amount my family paid,” the businessman disclosed on condition of anonymity. His family decided not to inform the police.
Most families of the kidnapped opt not to report to the police for the safety of their kin. And even after the victim gets released, there is the fear of backlash and threats.
But the most surprising part in the kidnapping incident was when he had enough courage to share his experience with his group of ten of his closest peers, four of them had already been through the same ordeal.
“It’s just so surprising that crime runs so rampant in the society and we don’t talk about it. We remain inert to all the injustice and wrongdoings,” the 35-year old businessman from the capital said.
And he was just one of the victims of kidnapping upsurge that Kathmandu has started to witness for the past few years.
Five days ago, a 17-year-old high school student was kidnapped and her beheaded body was found 17 days later in an outskirt of the capital. The kidnapper had demanded a ransom of one million Rupees. Her “twisted” teacher and a juvenile female accomplice were implicated and arrested two days later.
A week earlier, a fourth-grader was kidnapped but the locals freed her after a scuffle with the kidnappers who were taking her away on a motorbike.
Cases of kidnapping and extortion preying on “easy and soft but affluent targets” in Nepal have registered a significant increase recently. From the kidnapping of Dr Upendra Devkota’s daughter to lowly farmers and civil servants in the Terai, the number has increased, and fear is widespread. According to police reports, there were at least 77 reported abduction cases in one year.
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Stories in the media and on the grapevine suggest there are at least a couple of kidnappings every month. And it has become a “cottage industry” in Nepal, where a decade-long civil war has stunted social and economic development.
“Anyone who has firearms can go into it because they are convinced that the government is becoming soft in its approach. It’s true, kidnapping is becoming a cottage industry,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Two weeks ago, a group of conflict analysts studying the impacts of small arms on Nepal’s Peace Process concluded that it is seriously suffering from a proliferation of small arms. An estimated 55,000 small arms across the country are in the hands of people, more than the number of Nepal Police, which has around 35,000 personnel.
Those perceived as influential and wealthy – and their children – are most often preyed upon, especially in the main business hubs of Kathmandu and the southern plains of Nepal.
The south of Nepal has seen rampant crime, mostly murders and kidnapping by groups who call themselves political parties. Many have more criminal tendencies than political motivations. South Nepal has seen crime escalate that has killed more than 1,600 people in the last two years and hundreds kidnapped for extortions.
The “soft and easy target” as explained by the police include local businessmen, professionals, and individuals who are not “filthy rich but has money to pay off.”
“The ultra rich have never been targeted due to their social status perhaps. But the economically viable with no political and social connections have been made prime targets,” the police officer said.
Police authorities say that they “haven’t remained quiet during the tough times.” “We’re dealing with the problem. More than 90% of the cases filed have been solved as we’re able to free the victims and arrest the kidnappers,” said senior official Sher Bahadur Basnet of the Metropolitan Police.
The Crime Branch of Nepal Police has regularly announced arrest of kidnappers, and most often parade them for the media. Earlier this week, they busted a kidnappers’ gang which was involved in the kidnapping of a high-profile businessman who was released after paying a fat ransom.
The setup of a “kidnapping cell” to probe into the increasing numbers of kidnapping cases in Nepal has been able to work its way through the ring, the authorities claim. But that has neither decreased the number of kidnappings nor it has removed fear from the general public.
The middle and upper-middle class have said that they fear for their life more than ever, especially in the capital and cities in southern Nepal.
“The idea of a city frightens us nowadays. It’s not the same Kathmandu that we know,” said Dil Bahadur Glan, a young officer. “I know I don’t have much money, but I fear for my daughter everyday when she goes to school,” the 25-year-old Glan told myrepublica.
The two young men who dared rescue Monica Piya, a fourth-grade student, later expressed to myrepublica reporters that they were afraid of a repercussion.
“If people don’t feel secure, it hampers mobility and individual development. If you have to live in a state of fear all the time, you can’t perform well, whether in your school studies or your business,” Chetana Lokshum, a clinical psychologist, told myrepublica.
“There will be no motivation for anything at all, and this specially affects the children. They’ll suffer from anxiety to the future and their mental wellbeing will be affected directly,” she said.
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Marwaris, a business community of affluent Indians and Nepalis, were largely targeted by crime gangs in recent years. They have been in business and service industry for a long time, and the police believe it is the reason for them being one of the “soft target” groups.
“They don’t want trouble and quietly pay the ransom to have their family member freed unharmed,” says a police officer on condition of anonymity.
“At least 67 individuals were kidnapped in the last two years which saw a decrease earlier this year. But we just found out that six of our members were kidnapped in the last two months,” Pawan Mittal, president of the Marwari Sewa Samiti, told myrepublica.
“Most of them were released after paying ransom,” said Mittal whose community comprises around 150,000 in Nepal.
The ransom ranged from 5 hundred thousand to 10 million rupees.
“It’s quite impossible to get released without a ransom. Many medium-scale businessmen have lost everything they earned after paying the ransom. All Marwaris aren’t rich.”
In many cases, anyway, frightened Marwaris never inform the police or the Samiti, and even relatives fear the risk on the backdrop of the kidnappers’ threat to take the lives of the hostages, or other family members. Even if they are approached by the police, they hesitate to register a complaint.
“The victims and their families like to keep it a secret to avoid any further complications,” said Mittal whose organization works for the welfare of Marwari community. And lately, more cases of robbery and dacaoity have been registered.
“A few days ago, a family was preparing for a marriage ceremony. So they had cash and jewelries in their house. The robbers knew it and took worth millions,” Mittal said. “The community also faces serious problems from local goons who raise “hafta” or “weekly.” The hafta is an amount that businessmen are forced to pay, or else the hoodlums warn of physical damages.
“These people know how much money we earn and what business we do and about new transactions. Many of the criminals know exactly what we do and everything about us, and that’s very frightening and demoralizing,” he said.
The victim, after he gets released, is demoralized and disenchanted. “The mental trauma is unimaginable. They are so scared, and it’s never the same for them. They don’t feel secure. The energy to work and starting a new venture vanish. A few even shift to abroad, but we can’t really leave our country,” Mittal told myrepublica. “And if this continues, no conducive environment for business will remain, thus resulting the downfall of business and industry here.”
The criminals are professionals. “We just heard that the criminals have made a list of us, including how much we own and earn. And the list has been distributed. They are highly organized and very systematic,” said Mittal, his voice unsteady.
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For Lokshum, the psychologist, this is the product of the 12-year conflict.
“Where there’s conflict, you’ll see a lot of criminal activities in the post-conflict scenario. Nepal is going through the same experience,” she said. Many like her and political scientists attribute the increasing number of crime in the capital to the diminishing rule of law and order during a political transition. It is a period of passing through a decade-long bloody Communist uprising that killed more than 13,000 people and left thousands internally displaced.
The Maoists joined the Peace Process in November 2006, and since then they have enjoyed political support from the people as they came victorious as the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections last year. But recently, Nepal again saw a grave political instability after the former-rebel Maoist-led government toppled down. The leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, left the government after a row with the Nepal Army chief whom he had sacked but was reinstated by President Ram Baran Yadav.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, a moderate leftist, is now heading the government as Prime Minister but is finding it hard to fill the Cabinet because of intra- and inter-party disputes while the Maoists are set for confrontation on the streets with their agitation.
Critics say the new government will not last long, let alone deal with the Peace Process, in the country’s deteriorating law-and-order situation.
And large swathes of rural Nepal and urban cities are yet to see safety for the people. It is an increasingly precarious situation for the people who had hoped for peace and security after the country was destroyed by a decade-long war and extremism from both the rebels and state security.
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Parents of students expressed deep concerns and called for a nationwide school closedown, fearing for their children’s lives, and asking the administration to “take action.” The threat is also felt by the less wealthy who may nevertheless have the trappings of money, such as a new home, albeit on loans, or a new “lucrative”’ job. Many fear for their children’s safety in schools, whereas others are moving to safer neighborhoods. Few even left the country.
“There’s no development, no opportunities. The youth are likely to get attracted to criminal activities for easy money. Those who were young during the conflict are now youths, and they saw and learnt violence and how the society okayed it. It’s just but normal,” said Lokshum who has been practicing for more than a decade.
Lack of communication between security apparatuses, with political instability and reduced law and order situation in the country has assisted the criminals to have an outing in their crime sprees. In the meantime, the criminals have become more organized, systematic and well versed, according to authorities. Even though the police officer could not give the precise number of such kidnapping cases, he said the morale of the kidnappers have gone up because they think they can beat the system and have their actions accepted.
“I don’t say crime rate has increased but criminals have become very sophisticated. The qualities of the criminal work have definitely increased,” Basnet, who heads the kidnapping cell in the crime division of Nepal Police, said. “It’s evident in the technology they use, the way they deal with kidnapping, the trends, the way they demand and receive money,” Basnet said.“They get arrested and learn new lessons.”
He also adds that most of those involved in kidnapping are professional criminals who started from robbery and dacoity and switched to abduction. “Most of these people have bad history of crime,” he says.
Lack of communication between police and victims’ families has also boosted the confidence of kidnappers and those involved in organized crimes as they remain unharmed and unchallenged.
But now that’s changing; and for Basnet, that’s the good news that the “public started trusting the police.” He added, “There have been more reports for missing people, and some of those kidnapped have helped us identify the culprits. The very rich and super-class families haven’t been targeted. And usually, it’s been the children or the head of the family, because it’s easier to deal with the ransom.”
According to authorities, the criminals operate on three or four tiers. One group is responsible for kidnapping, another for transporting, another for handling of monetary affairs, and quite another for safekeeping. Basnet agrees that kidnapping is “a serious challenge.”
“Any crime is a challenge for the police. We have to better equip and prepare ourselves institutionally,” he says. He adds that one story is enough to terrorize the whole mass. “It doesn’t matter whether there are more or less kidnapping. It’s such a human-emotion subject that one story will be enough to terrorize the whole community.”
Lokshum said that trust deficit has bloated the problem. “There’s no condition for trust. Nobody can trust anybody, and it starts with political leadership. If the environment for trust isn’t amended, we’re in for a long bleak future,” she said.
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