Filmmaker held for buying stolen cars

A 45-year-old Nepalese film producer — decried as the “uncrowned king” among receivers of stolen vehicles by the Delhi Police — was arrested from east Delhi’s Anand Vihar on Friday.

A 45-year-old Nepalese film producer — decried as the “uncrowned king” among receivers of stolen vehicles by the Delhi Police — was arrested from east Delhi’s Anand Vihar on Friday.

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Prabhakar, deputy commissioner of police (east), said that Ganga Bahadur Bhandari from Kathmandu was involved in buying more than 1,000 stolen vehicles, a majority of which were luxury cars, from north Indian auto lifters. Bhandari was arrested while travelling in one of these cars on Thursday.

“He is the uncrowned king among receivers of stolen vehicles and has links with a fake currency racket in Nepal. While purchasing the vehicles, he used to give 75% of the quoted price in original currency and the rest in counterfeit notes,” DCP Prabhakar said. This, the police said, ensured a larger profit margin for Bhandari.

After earning a fortune from the sale-purchase of stolen vehicles, Bhandari produced a Nepali film Unko Samjhanama-a love story, and even a Nepali TV serial — Vakra Rekha.

Bhandar’s father had served in the Gorkha Regiment of Indian Army and had first come to Delhi in 1977 with his maternal uncle Man Bahadur Kharki.

According to the police, Bhandari had worked in a hotel at Vasant Vihar as a waiter from 1980 to 1985 before returning to Nepal, where he opened a small restaurant of his own.

“He ran a restaurant back home for six years before the Maoist revolution in 1991 affected the economy and forced him into unemployment,” Prabhakar said.

According to the police, it was then that a desperate Bhandari met Gurmukh Singh — between 1995 and 1996 — whom he knew from his stay in Delhi.

“Singh was later arrested by Bihar Police in a case of counterfeit currency but escaped from jail in the chaos that followed when floodwaters inundated the premises of Supaul Jail in 2008,”Prabhakar said.

Singh introduced Bhandari to Manoj Tigri, an auto lifter from Punjab, who used to sell stolen Indian cars in Nepal. Till the time he was caught, Bhandari is suspected to have received between 700 and 750 stolen vehicles.