Owners of International Marriage Bureau Convicted for Human Trafficking
October 10, 2016
Kathmandu District Court convicted Chheru Sherpa and Hee Chain Park as the main perpetrators and Nara Bahadur Raut as an abettor in the crime of Human Transportation and they were sentenced to 4 years and 6 months and 2 years and 3 months in imprisonment respectively. Kathmandu 26, CIB, 42 and CIB 43 (name coded by the court) were married with Chinese and Korean individuals through Chheru’s International Marriage Bureau. Chheru and Hee were the proprietors of the marriage bureau which had been unduly alluring rural indigenes girls for commercial marriage with Chinese and Korean persons in the name of foreign employment. They had been convincing the rural girls baiting with better income and better living standards. For this purpose had been moblilizing a number of individuals as their agents. Chheru had managed the registration of marriage process through District Administration Offices in Bhaktpur and Lalitpur with the help of a lawyer.
Applying for legal marriage and fulfilling all the legal formalities the convict had sent CIB 42 to Harbeen a northern rural area in China along with six other girls. After the victim reached China she realized that she had been the victim of human trafficking in the name of marriage. Her Chinese husband was abusive and told her that he bought her for fifteen hundred dollars. CIB 42 was abused and faced various forms of domestic violence form her husband. Fortunately she was able to escape from her husband’s house at mid night and Chinese police rescued her in a vulnerable condition. With the coordination of Nepalese Embassy, she returned to Kathmandu. Upon her arrival in Kathmandu, she, with the help of CIB, filled an FIR on 1st March, 2015 at CIB under Human trafficking and Transportation Act and Organized Crime Act 2070. Police there registered the FIR against Chheru Sherpa ,Hee chain park, among others. CIB arrested them from Chheru’s marriage bureau at Maharjgung. They were, later, referred to Shakti Samuha– an NGO, for shelter. In coordination with CIB, the case was referred to CeLRRd. Advocate Anjan Kumar Dahal, Advocate Manju Marasini, Advocate Shobha Pokharel and Advocate Santosh Maharjan from CeLRRd, along with government attorney, pleaded in Kathmandu District Court on behalf of them. District Court judge Durga Prasad Dhungel convicted them on 23rd September 2016.
In this case the court didn’t convict the perpetrator explicitly under human trafficking neither did the court recognize the element of organized crime. However, the court realized that crime like human trafficking and transportation can use legal ways as the means of human trafficking and transportation and the act of international marriage can be a means of human trafficking/ transportation. This is also significant achievement for the movement against anti-human trafficking field in Nepal. This case has clearly shown the changing dimension of human trafficking and transportation in Nepal.
