Four youths assured of lucrative jobs in foreign countries are left stranded in the Indian Capital, New Delhi, for the past two months after their agent duped them.

Saurabh Chhetri of Pokhara, Ramesh Baram, Niranjan Gurung and Rajendra Gurung, all from Gorkha, were assured jobs at a resort in Maldives with lucrative salary by a foreign employment agent. They had also handed over Rs 150,000 each to the agent for the job. They travelled to New Delhi in a bus some two months ago where they were told they would board a flight to Maldives within two days.

Their accommodation was arranged by another agent named Kumar Shrestha at Sombazaar area near Rajib Gandhi Cancer Hospital in New Delhi. The youths handed over their passports to Shrestha who also took them to a local travel agency whose staffers assured them they would fly them to Maldives once the necessary paper works were completed.

But after weeks without any response from the travel agency and the agent, the boys went to the agency for the second time. It was only then they knew they were duped by the agent. All those staffers who assured them of jobs earlier did not work there. The agents had arranged a meeting between the boys and staffs of the travel agency to deceive the boys saying their process for the employment in the resort was going on.

The youths were also asked to pay the rent of the room which had totaled over IRs 150,000. After failing to pay the room rent, the room owner locked their belongings inside and asked to pay the rent first to get it back. There were numerous other Nepali youths kept in rooms in the surrounding area of Sombazaar who were assured of jobs in Malta, New Zealand, South Korea and Mauritius.

Saurabh Chhetri, one of the victims, said they knew about such scam very late and went to Nepali Embassy in New Delhi for help. Following coordination between the embassy and local police, they have got their belonging back and are now preparing to return home. The youths said they hope to get their money back through the families of the agents back in Nepal.