NC leader orchestrates Rs 50 million fraud in the name of PM’s advisor

Exploiting the government's G2G agreement with Israel, a fraud scheme worth Rs 50 million was hatched targeting youth who had passed the language test and were on the waiting list.

Arrested Bharat Chaulagain and Balika Siwakoti.

KATHMANDU: On September 16, around 30 young people who had passed the Israeli language test brought 32-year-old Balika Siwakoti, a resident of Kalinchowk Rural Municipality-8, to a resort in Nagarkot for a discussion. The Gen Z youth had taken Siwakoti to the resort to confront her, alleging that she had defrauded them under the pretext of sending them to Israel for foreign employment.

The youth, who had paid Rs 620,000 each, pressured her at the resort to refund their money. According to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), Siwakoti had collected money from the youth claiming she would send them to Israel through the Government-to-Government (G2G) process.

After being surrounded and grilled by the youth, Siwakoti called ‘Hello Sarkar’, the direct contact line of the Prime Minister’s Office. During the phone call, she revealed that she was not the only person collecting money for Israel recruitment and that another individual possessed the collected funds. The person she implicated was 59-year-old Bharat Chaulagain from Sunapati Rural Municipality-1, Ramechhap. He is a district-level leader of the Nepali Congress in Ramechhap.

The two had met four years ago in their capacities as a politician and a media person. Although investigations into their other transactions and relationship are ongoing, neither has disclosed further details yet.

When calling ‘Hello Sarkar’, Siwakoti also invoked the name of Kumar Byanjankar (known as Kumar Ben), advisor to the Prime Minister. Chaulagain had claimed to have a close relationship with Ben and used Siwakoti as a front to collect money under the guise of sending people to Israel. Chaulagain had tasked Siwakoti with collecting funds, promising that Ben would get a Cabinet decision passed for the G2G process and send the youth who were waiting after passing their language exams to Israel.

However, neither was the government initiating a G2G process, nor was Ben starting any such procedure. Chaulagain did not even have direct acquaintance or contact with Ben. CIB Chief, Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Uma Prasad Chaturvedi says, “This entire plan was devised by Bharat Chaulagain to commit fraud.”

The information disclosed by Siwakoti reached the Bureau through advisor Ben via ‘Hello Sarkar’. The Bureau arrested Chaulagain from Ramechhap and Siwakoti from Kathmandu on September 17. Following their arrest, a forensic check of both their mobile phones revealed audio and video call records. “Keep reassuring the boys, the work will get done. The Labor Minister and Secretary didn’t agree, but the work will be done after directly speaking with Ben,” a CIB investigating officer quoted from an audio call between Chaulagain and Siwakoti.