By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Aug 13 (IANS) An Indian working in Saudi Arabia, who was defrauded of his money and threatened with being slapped with a criminal case as well by the perpetrator, says he was incredulous to have received prompt help from the police of Nepal, who bailed him out.
Nassir Ahmed Baba, who works in a ministry in Saudi Arabia, fell prey to a Nepali, Ishwori Thapa.
Thapa had been putting up advertisements on the Internet, describing himself as a manpower supplier from Nepal who could provide house maids and other blue-collar workers from Nepal and provide relevant documents for them, like police clearance certificates.
Baba sent Thapa $700 asking him to send a house maid. However, he realised Thapa's duplicity after the latter took the money and kept mum.
When Baba pressed him to send the maid or return his money, he was instead threatened that he would be slapped with trafficking charges.
"Money is nothing but cheating in this way is not acceptable," says Baba who then thought of appealing to the police authorities in Nepal for help.
Since it was not possible for him to come from Saudi Arabia, he sent a complaint through email. The Nepal Police has its own web site that mentions an email address where complaints can be sent.
After dashing off the complaint, Baba however had little hope that his predicament would be addressed. Then to his amazement, he received several calls from Nepal, asking him for details.
At first, he was sceptical and thought it was Thapa trying to throw him off the scent again. Then, to his joy, his relative from Nepal informed him that police had recovered the money from the fraudulent Thapa and handed it over to him.
"I want to thank the entire police team of Nepal for their excellent work," the overjoyed Baba said. "I will definitely publish this news on (my) Facebook page and inform Indian Embassy here in Saudi Arabia as well as in Nepal."
Nepal Police have a word of their own to add to the episode: when dealing with people through the Internet, be careful. You could be dealing with fraudsters.
Only last month, 23 Indians from various states in India were duped by racketeers who had advertised on the Internet, offering cushy jobs at the Nepal Airlines, Nepal's national carrier.
It was an especially traumatic time for eight of them, who had paid Rs.200,000 each for jobs as technicians.
They arrived in Kathmandu and were provided fake safety passes by the gang. When some of them entered the airport with the passes, they were caught by the other employees and taken to police.