Kathmandu: Nepal police Thursday arrested seven people, including six Indians, for running a fake travel lottery scam.
Those arrested include Nepali national Bibek Regmi, 26, a resident of Saptari district currently residing in Gatthaghar, Thimi of Bhaktapur district and Indian nationals Hussain Sayed, 39, Sajid Omar Sayed, 44, Mohamad Imran, 34, Mirkhalid Hussain, 33, Rajak Mohmad, 40, and Samada Giri, 42, all from Telangana, Hyderabad.
They are currently residing in the Mahalaxmi Municipality of Lalitpur district, according to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office.
Those arrested were cheating hundreds of Nepalese through a fake lottery scam under which the victims were told they had won a lottery to visit various destinations in Asia, Europe and Africa from Sheertel Holidays Pvt. Ltd.
They cheated 328 Nepalese citizens and collected 27.65 million NPR on the pretext of issuing cheap holiday packages through a lottery, said the police.
They also hired 30 Nepalese staff to run their lottery racket, police added.
Over 7,00,000 NPR in cash, one Dell computer, one Asus laptop, one Redme tab, eight mobile sets, 7 Indian sim cards and eight Indian passports were recovered from those arrested, police said.
The travel agents received payments from the clients for booking holiday packages at discounted rates through lotteries; however, none of the clients was either able to visit the said destination or get any refund.
The police have initiated further investigation into the matter after taking them into custody.