Two Nepali men nabbed with Indian passports

NEW DELHI - Police Monday claimed to have busted an international trafficking racket with the arrest of two Nepali citizens travelling on Indian passports to Afghanistan.

“We arrested two Nepali citizens Sunday who were working as security guards in Afghanistan and travelling on Indian passports,” a senior police officer said here.

Vishnu Nath Gurung and Krishna Bahadur Rai were arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here after a complaint was received Sunday from the immigration department.

“Initial interrogation of both passengers revealed that they had procured Indian passports issued by the regional passport office (RPO), Guwahati. The passports were arranged by an agent based in Kathmandu, who had got their visa and ticketing formalities also arranged through another travel agent based in Delhi,” the police officer said.

A special team was constituted and raids were conducted in New Delhi to apprehend the agent, the kingpin of the racket in the country.

“Sustained raids carried out at various places in Delhi helped the team in nabbing the travel agent, Ramesh Prasad Yadav, from Shakarpur area,” he said.

An investigation revealed that the agent had charged Rs.160,000 from each of them for their journey as well as employment in Kabul.

The Nepali citizens have been working as security guards at various camps of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan since December 2009.

“We have been able to recover a list of Nepali citizens who are suspected to have fraudulently procured Indian passports and are currently employed in Afghanistan as security guards,” the police officer said.