Woman, two accomplices, held for extorting employer with harassment allegation

POKHARA: Police have arrested three individuals, including a woman, in Pokhara for attempting to extort Rs 5 million by falsely accusing a gold and silver trader of sexual harassment.

The District Police Office, Kaski, has charged the three with criminal breach of trust and extortion.

According to the police, Mariyam Rai (27), an employee at a gold and silver shop in Pokhara-4, fabricated allegations of sexual harassment against the shop owner with the intent to extort a large sum of money. Investigations revealed that she collaborated with two men from eastern Nepal to execute the plan.

Rai, who had been living in Pokhara-15, involved Dev Limbu (38) from Biratnagar and Tek Bahadur Subedi (40) from Sabhapokhari-2, Sankhuwasabha, in her plan to extort Rs 5 million from the businessman. The trio allegedly summoned the shop owner’s wife to a hotel in Lakeside, Pokhara, and demanded the money. “Provide us with enough wealth to last a lifetime, a house, and business arrangements, or we will ruin your husband with various legal cases,” they told the businessman’s wife, according to DSP Hari Bahadur Basnet, the information officer of the District Police Office, Kaski.

Basnet added that Rai, who is related to Limbu and Subedi, mentally harassed the shop owner’s wife for a week.

After a complaint was filed, the police took the three into custody for investigation. Police also recovered three mobile phones, a pen drive containing audio of the extortion negotiations, and other related documents from them.

“The Kaski District Court has granted a seven-day remand to continue the investigation into charges of criminal breach of trust and extortion,” DSP Basnet added.