Tulsipur, 26 May: 22-year-old Sujata Chaudhary of Baruwa, Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City-6, was walking on foot Saturday afternoon. A third-year BA student at Public Gyan Jyoti College, she was on her way to her maternal uncle’s house nearby for a personal errand.
A young man on a motorcycle stopped next to her, but he didn’t turn off the engine.
“Sister, I have an emergency. Can I please use your phone for a moment?” he said, claiming he didn’t have a phone with him and that his brother had suddenly fallen ill and had been taken to the hospital.
Sujata believed him and handed over her phone to help. As soon as the man got the phone, he sped off on his motorcycle. Sujata ran after him shouting “Phone! Phone!” but couldn’t catch him. Disappointed, she returned home.
A similar incident occurred in a rural area — Saipur, Tulsipur-16 — with 23-year-old Narayani Sapkota.
Narayani was walking to buy milk, about 150 meters north of her house. A man approached her and asked for directions, then claimed his mother was sick and requested to use her phone. Narayani refused, making up an excuse that she had no balance on her phone.
At that moment, another man came from behind on a motorcycle, snatched her phone, and the two sped away. As it was a deserted area even during daytime, no one heard Narayani’s cries. Despite running after them while shouting, there was nothing she could do.
On April 7, around 9:30 PM, 18-year-old Haribahadur Dangi of Dangi village, Bagchaur Municipality-9 in Salyan, experienced a similar incident.
He was walking near Rapti-Babai Campus when a young man on a motorcycle stopped in front of him. The man asked for Hari’s phone, saying he had come to pick up a friend and his own phone was off.
Trusting him, Hari handed over his phone. But the man tried to flee immediately. Hari attempted to grab the motorcycle but was thrown to the ground, and the man escaped.
All three victims reported the daytime thefts to the Area Police Office in Tulsipur. Police then launched an investigation.
Chief of the Tulsipur Area Police, DSP Anil Thakuri, began technical and manual investigations. He formed two groups — one including all local mobile shop operators and another with scrap dealers — and informed them of the rising incidents of mobile phone theft.
One day, a man came to a mobile shop with Hari’s stolen phone, pretending to have forgotten the password. The shopkeeper quickly informed the police, but the man escaped.
According to DSP Thakuri, the man was also committing other crimes. Using stolen phones, he would contact victims’ relatives and extort money.
Using Sujata’s phone, he had already collected over NPR 15,000 from her contacts.
“He had messaged almost all my Facebook friends asking for money,” Sujata said.
As the investigation progressed, police identified the perpetrator and arrested him on Sunday.
Police took 25-year-old Amrit Chaudhary, a resident of Baruwa, Tulsipur-6, into custody from his own house. Sujata’s stolen phone was also recovered from his room.
According to DSP Thakuri, it took one and a half months of investigation to apprehend Amrit.
In custody, Amrit confessed to snatching nearly a dozen mobile phones during that period. Since his arrest, multiple victims have contacted the police.
