Police crack down on a bogus WFP office

On Monday, the Budhanikantha, Kathmandu, office of the fake  World Food Programme (WFP) was shut down by the Kathmandu Police after it was discovered that an organized gang was running it.

Police busted a phony WFP office in Budhanilkantha Municipality-5, Kathmandu, that was using a two-story structure that belonged to Bishnu Bahadur Gurung as a rental as part of an operation by the Kathmandu District Police Range and Police Circle, Maharajgunj. 

Organizing a press conference on Monday, the range chief of the Kathmandu District Police and SSP Dan Bahadur Karki announced that two people had been detained after it was discovered that they had defrauded people by opening a fictitious WFP office and running its program under the name "International Food Security Programme, Nepal."

Ghanshyam Katwal, 47, of Sindhupalchowk, a temporary resident of Gokarneshwar Municipality, and Leela Bahadur Ghalan, 40, also known as Dinesh, of Budhanilkanth-5 of Bagmati Rural Municipality-9 of Makwanpur are among those detained.

From Makwanpur, Bhim Bholan, Milan Tamang, and Pemba Tamang are missing.

The authorities said that goods including a national flag, a WFP letterpad, and other items were also found at the fictitious office.

Since May 15, 2023, the inmates, according to the authorities, have operated a fictitious WFP office.

According to SSP Karki, Ghanshyam Katwal appointed himself the under secretary and sat in the position of the chief while using the alias Jayaram KC.

According to Karki, it was discovered that KC had hired Dipesh Gurung as a technical engineer, Akash Rai as a public relations officer, and Pemba Tamang as a branch officer. But all of these names are made up.

Bhim Bholan is Dipesh's true name, while Milan Tamang is Akash's.

The police claim that they published a tender for various goods under the WFP's name in the Rajdhani Daily newspaper. After the bids for furniture, computers, and other supplies were not paid, the victims resorted to the police.

When the Maharajgunj Police Circle team began their investigation at that time, they discovered that the office itself was a phony.

SSP Karki said that Shankar Aryal had hired out his Scorpio vehicle to the group after having faith in them. He was defrauded of Rs. 612,500 by the gang.

Bishnu Bahadur Gurung, the owner of the home, also reported the office to the police for failing to pay rent of Rs. 180,000 each month.

After winning the bids as announced in the newspaper and handing them desktop computers, laptops, and other stuff, Hari Prasad Aryal was also defrauded. His acceptance of the proposal, for Rs. 4.8 million, was written on a phony business letterhead.

The Hari Prasad Aryal office has previously given the office stationery worth Rs. 836,000 as part of the overall tender price. The office had also purchased stationery from Nabaraj Pandey for Rs. 85,000. 

During the course of the police investigation, it was also discovered that Katwal, who is presently in detention, had previously engaged in fraud.

The documents indicated that Katwal was arrested on July 10, 2020, a member of the then-Metrpolitan Police Crime Division squad made the arrest on suspicion of scamming individuals by posing as the leader of an international NGO in Nepal.

The accusation against him at the time was that he had defrauded Tokha's Hiramaya Tamang of Rs. 2 million under the Rural Development initiative, a Rs. 50 million initiative, and had enticed her to join by giving her 50% of the project office.

According to police, he was once again discovered engaging in fraud after being freed from custody.

SSP Karki claims that it has also come to light that he defrauded individuals in other Terai districts by claiming to be a former chief district officer, inspector general of police, secretary, and undersecretary.

"Katwal, who was arrested from Bhaktapur; we have received remand order of five days for the investigation into the crime under fraud," stated SSP Karki.