Kathmandu, Aug. 10:  The number of foreign prisoners in the country has reached 850. They are kept in 32 different prisons as the Central Jail Sundhara, the Sadar Jail Dillibazar, the Nakkhu Jail Lalitpur. 

 

They have been convicted in various crimes like smuggling of fake Indian currency, narcotics drugs trafficking, human trafficking, murder, robbery and forged passports. 

 

According to the Department of Prison Management, among them a majority are Indian citizens. The open border between Nepal and India is believed to be the reason for the more number of Indian jailbirds in Nepal. The number of Indian prisoners is 614, including 50 females.

 

Similarly, 232 convicts are from Asia, America, Europe, and Africa and other countries. Likewise, 93 Bhutanese, 23 Bangladeshi, 34 Chinese, two Romanian, one German, 32 Pakistanis, an Italian, eight Nigerian nationals are behind bars, as per the Department’s record.

Officials at the Central Investigation Burea of Nepal Police said foreigners’ involvement has increased in crimes like credit card theft and ATM hacking, animal poaching, drug peddling, and smuggling of medicinal herbs.

 

The notorious Indian criminal Manmith Singh alias Manmith Bhatiya who shot at media entrepreneur Yunus Ansari inside the jail is still doing time at the central jail, waiting for court verdict.

 

Similarly, the international criminal Charles Sobhraj, a French national, is serving term in the Central Jail. Also infamously known as the ‘bikini killer’, he is convicted of killing foreign backpackers in Nepal. Sobhraj, born to Indian father and Vietnamese mother, was accused of murdering 12 foreign tourists. He was arrested on September 20, 2003 from Kathmandu on the basis of tip-off.

 

The Kathmandu District Court on August 3, 2004 handed down life imprisonment against him and confiscation of all his property. 

 

Police have mentioned that most of those convicted Indian and Pakistani nationals are involved in transaction and smuggling of fake currency, swindling, drugs trafficking whereas African and European convicts are doing time for crimes like illegal drugs trafficking and fake passport.

 

There is provision to repatriating the foreign nationals to their respective countries after completion of their jail term. RSS