After the arrest of five Chinese nationals involved in a massive ATM card forgery and hacking scandal in Nepal, the country officially raised the matter with Beijing. The Chinese nationals allegedly duped the majority of Nepali banks of millions of rupees. The fraud was carried out in a coordinated manner which also led to disruptions in a lot of transactions. The accused tampered with an ATM switch linking Nepal Electronic Payment System(NEPS) to eleven Nepali banks.

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China’s business interest

The Chinese, who had hacked NEPS, arrived in Nepal on August 30 and had planned to leave the country on September 30. Briefing the Chinese Foreign Ministry regarding the involvement of their citizens in bank fraud, officials communicated to them that such incidents can send a very bad image of China internationally. The Finance Ministry of Nepal along with its Foreign Ministry warned that such incidents could impact the business interests of China. The officials also briefed China about the nature of the crime and mechanism used to steal large amounts of cash.

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Raising the issue at the right time

After the crime surfaced, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the Central Bank of Nepal, had called an emergency meeting of all banks across Kathmandu. Chinese foreign minister was on a visit to Nepal from September 8 to 10, but Nepal decided not to raise the issue at that time to avoid any sort of embarrassment. According to Bam Bahadur Mishra, chief of the Payment Systems Department at the NRB, approximately Rs 34.5 million (Nepali) was withdrawn illegally including Rs 10.5 million (INR) from India, quoted a local media.

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India-Nepal relations

On September 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli had inaugurated a cross country pipeline for uninterrupted supply of oil to Nepal. They inaugurated the first cross country pipeline through video conference from New Delhi and Kathmandu. PM Modi said that it was a special day for India-Nepal friendship and happily informed that the project for completed ahead of its schedule.

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(With inputs from ANI)