Rayamajhi, 23, from Bhirpani Village Development Committee (VDC), Ramechhap --working for an Indian firm in China -- was captured by the Chinese to put pressure on the absconding Indian entrepreneur who owed four million Yuan (around Rs 50 million) to the Chinese. [break]
Niraj Chopra, the owner of Oscar Company, had gone missing since August after being unable to pay the dues, according to Rayamajhi.
The Chinese took Rayamajhi under control on November 1 after Chopra didn´t turn up for around three months and locked him in Hotel Hunting for 16 days. Rayamajhi said he is still in a state of shock due to mental stress. He was even beaten during captivity though being fed well.
“They didn´t do anything with Chopra´s Chinese wife fearing pressure from the local police but held me captive saying I was their only means of getting their money back,” Rayamajhi revealed.
Nepali Embassy had freed him from the hotel on November 17 in coordination with the Chinese Police and the initiative of Sundar Thapa, the president of the Non Resident Nepali Association, following complaints by local Nepali businessmen.
Police had left him at his apartment after freeing him but the Chinese businessmen again held him captive in his room. “I managed to flee from my room on the third day of captivity after getting the Chinese man keeping an eye on me drunk,” he explained. “They would guard me by turn at hotel and continued to do the same even in my room,” he added.
He escaped from his room at two in the morning and then went to nearby Bonjau in a taxi and then to Guangzhou from Shenzen on a plane. Thapa said they made arrangements for him to fly to Kathmandu on November 21 after he felt insecure even in Guangzhou.
Rayamajhi had been working as marketing manager at Oscar Company for the past two years having reached China five years ago to work in a restaurant. He complained that he has yet to get around Rs 150,000 as his salary for four months.
“I was beginning to lose hope of survival when they shut me in the hotel room after seizing my cell phone. I am having nightmares about the episode even now,” he said.
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