Proprietors of Fishtail Gamings in police net
POKHARA, JAN 01:
Dip Bahadur Basnet and Alok Rauniyar, proprietors of Fishtail Gamings, the operator of the casino at the Fulbari Hotel in Pokhara, have been arrest ed on the charge of not paying the rent to the hotel and the salaries of its employees. Two other proprietors — Rajat Gurubacharya and Sanjeev Tuladhar — are at large, according to the police.
The District Police Office, Kaski has been questioning Basnet and Rauniyar after getting a court order to keep them in custody. They were arrest ed in Kathmandu on Dec 24. They have been accused of swindling Rs 45.7 million from the casino at the Fulbari Hotel, one of the popular five-star properties in the region.
They were held on the basis of a complaint filed by the hotel’s chief manager Samir Kapil on behalf of Piyush Bahadur Amatya, the chairman of the Fulbari.
Fishtail Gamings, which is registered under the names of Gurubacharya and Tuladhar, signed an agreement with the Fulbari Hotel to operate a casino on July 3, 2008. Basnet and Rauniyar were introduced as directors at the time the accord was signed. Fishtail Gamings opened the casino on August 8, 2008 after hiring 315 workers.
On August 29, 2008, however, the Department of Industry barred the group from operating the casino saying that it was not mentioned in its memorandum of association. Subsequently, the four chiefs went into hiding. The group had rented 36 rooms of the Fulbari to operate the casino. And of the 315 workers hired at the beginning, 290 remained when the proprietors disappeared.
Kaski Police spokesperson Rabindra Paudel said the complaint was filed on the behalf of Amatya accusing the casino operators of not paying the bills of the hotel’s room, workers’ wage, other logistics and G Force, a company that makes available security guards. Earlier, a team including Basnet had filed a case against chairman Amatya and his daughter Nura charging them with collecting Rs 40 million by promising to give a share in the casino although Amatya was not allowed to operate one.
Following the accusation, the police had detained Amatya on July 30, 2011. The case against Amatya, which has reached the Supreme Court, is yet to be finalized. Although the Kathmandu District Court and the Appellate Court had demanded bail in the amount of Rs 30 million from Amatya, the Supreme Court had released him without bail declaring it was a purely business deal.
Amatya had tried to file a case against the group in Kaski. However, Kaski Police declined to file a case saying that the case filed against Amatya in Kathmandu and the one he wanted to file was the same. Subsequently, Amatya filed a case at the Appellate Court, Pokhara on May 4, 2012.
Kaski Police have refused to disclose details of the case. “We are conducting an investigation after extending their stay in custody,” said Shailesh Thapa Chhetri, Superintendent of Police.
Meanwhile, the casino workers have demanded that their outstanding wages be paid. Radha Prasad Gurung, secretary at the casino, said their salaries had accumulated to more than Rs 5 million. Currently, there are 70 workers still remaining at the casino. They said the casino used to earn up to Rs 8 million per night.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
