Monday, February 14, 2011

Embassy lets prostitution broker flee

NEW DELHI, Feb 14: In a stunning case of negligence, the Nepali embassy in New Delhi has let a suspected prostitution agent escape from its premises a day after some Nepali social workers handed him over to the embassy.

It has been learnt that the suspect, Sushila Rai, who was allegedly trying to take two young Nepali girls to Bombay to force them into prostitution, was handed over to the embassy on February 9, but she disappeared from the embassy premises without a trace on the very day.

The embassy authorities are numb about the matter and have said that they let her go apparently to “collect her clothes.” However, the embassy now has no trace of Rai.

Rai hails from Bhotekul-8, Dharan, and is currently living in Bombay.

“This is a sheer case of negligence on the part of the embassy officials and we even suspect that they could have been bribed to let Rai off from the embassy,” Sailendra Thakuri, the director of Integrated Volunteer Association of Nepal, who handed Rai to the embassy, told Republica Sunday.

Astonished after learning about Rai´s disappearance on Sunday, a disappointed Thakuri said, “Sushila Rai had offered me and my friends IRs 10,000 to let her go when we learnt about her evil intentions,” adding, “All our efforts have gone down the drain now as they (embassy authorities) have let the main broker escape.”

Surprisingly, Thakuri said that when they inquired at the embassy from the third-secretary, Runoonu Chapagai, who was looking after the case, she remarked that “what happened was for the best.”

Quoting Chapagai, Thakuri said, “It is good that Rai has escaped as the issue could have been life-threatening to all of you who caught her.”

Thakuri said that Rai could have left for Bombay immediately after she got out of the embassy. He even said that some Nepali guys who helped him have received “threat calls” from Bombay for having intervened and captured Rai.

The two girl victims -- Arpana Rai Karki, 22, and Meera Khatri, 18 -- were flown from Kathmandu to New Delhi by their agents Anjan Rai and Sunil Rai. Karki hails from Dharan and Khatri from Jhapa.

The girls had claimed that they were to be sent to the Gulf for employment but were received by Sushila at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and taken to one Classic Hotel in Pahadgunj area in Delhi.

Thakuri and few of his friends got suspicious of Sushila´s intention when they overheard her phone conversation at a restaurant named Kathmandu Bhojanalaya in Pahadgunj.

Thakuri informed that when they approached them, “all three had different versions of story to tell.” Thakuri along with few of his friends and some restaurant workers caught Sushila on February 9 morning.

Repeated attempts to contact Chapagai by Republica on Sunday failed. But the embassy has informed that the other two girls - Karki and Khatri - have been sent back to Nepal.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28239

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