Kathmandu: Kashiram Gurung, a fugitive living in India under a false identity after swindling millions of rupees in Nepal, was arrested by the Nepalese police near the Indian border.
Gurung, 44, chairman of now-defunct Unity Life International, was the top gun of the illegal network business that swindled millions of rupees from its thousands of clients and had gone into hiding to evade arrest two years ago.
The Supreme Court on May 23, 2010, had outlawed ULI`s banking, insurance and cooperative businesses and police had put him on its most wanted list.
Network business and network marketing have been listed as illegal by the government.
Senior Superintendent of Police Rajendra Man Shrestha, in-charge, Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur, said detectives trailed Gurung while he was on his way to Darjeeling from New Delhi on Tuesday and laid a trap in Pashupatinagar of Ilam, a border area with neighbouring India, to nab him.
"Acting on a special tip-off that Gurung was living in several places of India, we had coordinated with our Indian counterpart to nab the fugitive," SSP Shrestha said.
National Investigation Bureau, a division of the Nepal Police and a contact point for Interpol offices in 190 member states, had issued a diffusion notice, a request to arrest or find the whereabouts of an accused or other related information, against the most wanted fugitive.
Gurung was found to be living in the guise of Binit Kumar Lama of Meghalaya to evade arrest.
Shrestha said a forged driving licence bearing such a name with Gurung`s photo affixed on it was confiscated from his possession.
"We have also seized ATM and Visa cards issued by SBI Bank and Kumari Bank in the name of Jau Maya Gurung believed to be his sister," Shrestha said.
Gurung used to draw money from Indian banks using these cards.
Police have already pressed fraud and banking offence charges against Gurung.
ULI, a pyramid scheme, had cheated 40,141 identified members in Nepal and abroad and collected Nepalese rupees 3.79 billion from them by promising handsome returns, life insurance schemes and medical facilities.
The network business was being operated without the central bank`s permission.
Two other promoters of ULI, Bishnu Bahadur Chhetri and Krishna Bahadur Chhetri of Parbat, are still at large.
PTI
