Ashok Kumar Thapa, the interim council member of Baburam Bhattarai-led Naya Shakti, has been arrested on fraud charge.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police arrested Thapa on Sunday after he swindled a Pokhara-based woman of Rs 725,800 through a lottery scam.

Police Superintendent Dibesh Lohani of CIB said Thapa used SMS alerts

to trick the woman by

convincing her that she

had won 500,000 pounds in “Pepsi Mobile Draw, UK”, and that to receive the prize

she needs to send some

money to “complete the legal procedures”.

The woman had deposited the said amount to an account at SBI Bank.

Investigation revealed that Thapa had personally withdrawn the money from the Bouddha branch of the SBI Bank.  

Lohani said the Kathmandu District Court has remanded Thapa to seven days in custody for further investigation.

Back in 2013, the CIB had arrested two Nigerians and a Nepali woman for running a lottery scam. The trio had duped several people of Rs 417,000.

The CIB has urged the public to immediately report to 01-4411776 or 9851283140 if they receive any suspicious calls or SMS/email alerts about winning a lottery.