The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Thimphu police arrested a 30-year-old man from Khudumpang, Trashigang for larceny with deception and forgery.
The victim, Kinley, said she came across a post made by the suspect on social media (Facebook) advertising a requirement for both male and female candidates to work in California, USA.
In addition, the post mentioned about arrangements for free air tickets and visa. After seeing the post, Kinley then added the suspect in her Facebook friend list and obtained his mobile number.
Kinley along with her husband met with the suspect in person and the suspect had introduced himself as a businessman leaving for US. The suspect had convinced the couple that his sister was an airhostess in USA whereby the owner of the airline wanted to hire two people for his hardware shop.
They were told that a male candidate is needed for marketing while a female candidate was required as a sales clerk. “We decided to go with him and we submitted all our documents. He asked us to pay Nu 100,000 each for visa processing, but we paid him Nu 65,000 each promising to pay the remaining amount when we are going for an interview in Kathmandu,” she said.
She said that they paid Nu 130,000 to the suspect on April 6 while they paid the remaining amount, Nu 70,000 on April 21 when they met with the suspect near Norling building, Norzin Lam. She said, “He told us that we will be leaving on 23 May whereby he took the remaining amount saying that he needed to book flight tickets,” she added.
The couple was told that they need not have to go to Kathmandu to attend the interview as the suspect said he can go and give the interview on their behalf. Kinley and her husband grew suspicious and had asked for the evidence of the job offer. The couple was told that he will make them to talk with the owner through Skype, which never happened.
However, the suspect managed to provide the couple with a Druk PNB deposit slip showing that he had transferred Nu 130,000 to his visa agent. After few days, Kinley went to verify the receipt from Druk PNB where she was told that the receipt was fabricated with a duplicate seal.
In addition, she was told that, even the account number was incorrect, and thereafter, she rushed to the police station for help. She did not have any information on the suspect apart from his mobile number.
She said, “At last, we found everything to be forged and we approached the police for help. My earnest request to people is that don’t rush for jobs abroad, instead do proper research,” adding not to trust anyone, regardless of the person being a Bhutanese citizen or not.
She also said that people are easily influenced when in desperate need of a job which promise’s high income. Kinley is a radio jockey at Yiga Radio.
Based on her complaint on May 2, police called the suspect to police station whereby he confessed about taking the money from the couple. During the course of investigation, police recovered the duplicate Druk PNB seal, which was made by the suspect. The suspect is under police detention for further investigation.
