November 8: Patan High Court has remanded six Chinese nationals in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in ATM hackings in the capital three months ago. One of the Chinese was arrested red handed on August 31 while hacking an ATM at Durbar Marg. Following the arrest, police arrested his five Chinese accomplices and a few Nepalis involved in the fraud case in which millions were stolen from various ATMs before their arrest.

The financial bench of Patan High Court issued the order on Thursday, November 7. The bench also decided to release three Nepalis arrested in connection to the hacking on bail.  The court has asked Devnath Lamichhane to post a bail amount of Rs 3 million while Rewati Dawadi and Roshan Pradhan were ordered to submit Rs 2.6 million each. However, Metropolitan Police Range, Teku informed New Business Age that the trio remain in jail after failing to post the bail amount.

DSP Hobindra Bogati said that the police have completed their investigation. The police range has already submitted its investigation report to the government attorney’s office. The high court issued the order on Thursday after receiving the report from the government attorney.

According to Bogati, the accused are now awaiting the final verdict in the case in which the Chinese nationals have been accused of stealing millions of rupees by hacking the Nepal Electronic Payment System.

The Chinese nationals had withdrawn a total of Rs 17.6 million from ATMs of various banks. Police later found that the group had taken out Rs 11.4 million from the ATM of Nabil Bank alone. Police have recovered Rs 12.6 million and US$ 9,800 from the hackers.

Meanwhile, CEO of Nepal Electronic Payment System, Pravin Chhetri said that a Singaporean company has been carrying out forensic investigation into the case. NePS has been providing its service to a network of 17 banks. Although the report was initially said to be out by December this year, NePS said that it will take some more time to complete the investigation.