Economy

Scam-hit stage sit-in at RBB

Published by Octron on May 28, 2009

KATHMANDU, May 27 – The victims of a scam committed by a group including an employee of Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) staged two hour sit-in Tuesday at the bank’s branch in Amar Singh Chowk, Pokhara.
According to a victim, Shanti K.C., Lila Bhandari and bank employee Nirmala Parajuli swindled 65 customers of the bank out of Rs. 31.5 million in cash and 60 tolas of gold.

“The concerned authorities are not serious even though such a large amount of money has been stolen with the involvement of a bank employee,” said Ganga Gurung, chief of the victims struggle committee, “We have organised a sit-in to pressure the authorities.”

They have blamed the bank for not taking responsibility for the deception and the police for not conducting a thorough investigation.

According to Laxmi Dalamagar, she found that her bank account was empty when she had come to withdraw money. She also claimed that Rs. 400,000 belonging to her had been taken out by Nirmala. According to the victims, “Senior officials at the bank did not listen to us and they are also trying to stay away from the case.”

The bank branch said that only three cases were related to the bank and the other 10 were related to Nirmala. Tikaram K.C., branch manager of RBB, said that no one had come to report until Nirmala had fled. He added that RBB’s central office was holding an investigation.

The victims said that the police had not submitted their report as demanded by the court. Currently, the three fraudsters are behind bars following a court order.

Reporter: LAL PRASAD SHARMA (Kantipur)

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