Kathmandu, January 23
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) of the police raided the house of businessperson Rupesh Shrestha and seized ledgers containing the details of the illegal hundi transactions.
Director AIG Kiran Bajracharya said that the bureau’s team found details of a large amount of transactions in the ledgers named ‘John Robert’ and ‘Ren Baker’.
According to him, the details of Rs 1. 985 billion were recorded in the ledger named ‘John Robert’ alone. According to the CIB, details of 989 illegal hundi transactions were found in it.
Transaction details of Rs 27.55 million have been found in the ledger named ‘Ren Baker’. According to CIB officials, it is seen that Rupesh Shrestha was involved in illegal hundi transactions worth at least Rs 2.26 billion.
AIG Bajracharya said that during the technical examination of the mobile, laptop, computer CPU etc. recovered from his room, it was also seen that he was dealing in cryptocurrency. The details of transactions from November 1, 2022, to November 17, 2023, in two ledgers were found.
In the details, the names of various persons have been mentioned and the money has been delivered, cleared, etc. Shrestha has admitted in his statement to the police that the signature mentioned in it belongs to his employee Shadar Bhattarai.
Rupesh, along with his brother Dipesh Shrestha and nephew Ayush Shrestha, who are doing business in the United States, have claimed in their statement to the police that they used to send Nepali people’s salaries who are working at the gas station in the USA to their relatives in Nepal.
“I started making payments like this about a year ago. My brother and nephew used to send me the amount in Nepal”, he said.
On November 22, 2022, CIB arrested businessperson Rupesh Shrestha on charges of illegal hundi transactions and online gambling and started an investigation.
CIB officials said that details of cryptocurrency transactions were also found in his mobile phone details. Businessperson Bimal Poddar is also included in those details.
CIB officials reported that during the investigation, they uncovered the country’s largest hundi and cryptocurrency trading group.
