It was around 8:30 pm. The 4-year-old son of a woman selling tea in the Patan Durbar area went missing last Thursday (February 6).
The woman searched her son frantically, but in vain. When she could not find her son, she lodged a complaint at the nearby Police Sector, Mangal Bazar.
A circular was issued to the police to search for the boy. Acting on the circular, the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office team managed to arrest, Mai Hoang, 23, a Vietnamese citizen, who was trying to flee to India with the boy, after 14 hours. The boy was also rescued from a hotel in Kalanki.
It has been revealed that he was planning to take the boy to India by bus from Patan. Police determined that he had been planning the boy's kidnapping for a few months. He had been approaching the boy for a few months to kidnap him.
The kidnapper had been close to the boy since Christmas
Mai Hoang from Chaweng City, Vietnam, first came to Nepal on December 27, 2023. He stayed in Nepal for only 11 days during that period. After 11 days, he went to New Delhi, India.
After staying in Punjab, India, for four months, he returned to Nepal. On April 27, 2024, he came to Nepal by road from Punjab, said SP Kaji Kumar Acharya, spokesperson for the Crime Investigation Office.
Even after coming to Nepal, he did not stay in one place. He stayed in different hotels. Initially, he stayed in a hotel in Swayambhu for two months. Then he moved to Thamel. He moved to another place after staying for a week in Thamel.
He, then, moved to a hostel in Katyayani Chowk, Baneshwar, where he resided for six months.
It has been revealed that he used to go to various monasteries in Kathmandu, including Swayambhu, Kapan, and Boudha, to learn the Lama language.
He has told the police that he sometimes goes to the Krishna Temple in Patan Durbar Square, Lalitpur, for sightseeing.
During his travels, he had reached the Krishna Mandir premises in Patan to celebrate Christmas on December 25. There, he met the elder brother of the recently kidnapped child.
During their meeting, they chatted and shared snacks like chips and chocolates. He gave food to the elder brother and developed a relationship. After that, he would visit that place again and again and play with the children and give them something to eat.
On February 6, at 8:30 pm, he again reached Mangal Bazaar, Patan in Lalitpur Metropolitan City-12.
The children were playing nearby, and the mother was selling tea there. But the Vietnamese took the child away. The child's mother was clueless about it.
After her son went missing, she reported it to the Police Sector, Mangal Bazaar. The Police Sector also searched for him but they did not find him. Then they informed the higher unit about it.
At 11:23 pm, the information reached the Valley Crime Investigation Branch Office, Jawalakhel for a search from the District Police Range Lalitpur.
A police team, led by Police Inspector Shiva Thapa, was immediately mobilized to search for the boy, according to SSP Ramesh Basnet, head of the Valley Crime Investigation Office.
Police initially reviewed CCTV footage from the area where the boy disappeared. The footage showed an unidentified individual taking the boy from Dhalcha Chowk, near Krishna Mandir, at 8:44 pm. The two then traveled a short distance before boarding a taxi. Although the police showed the footage of the kidnapper to the boy's mother, she did not recognize him. The police's investigation focused on the taxi.
It turned out that the taxi was booked through Drive and went only as far as Jhamsikhel. From there, the kidnapper and the boy took a different taxi to the Guru Hotel in Sundhara.
The next morning, it was discovered that he had booked seats B3 and B4 on New Sajan bus number 6818, which was scheduled to depart from Kathmandu to Birgunj at 10:25 am. He was staying with the child in a room at the Ilam Mechi Guest House near the Makalu Petrol Pump in Kalanki. After the police tracked down their location, the child was safely rescued from room number 107 of the Ilam Mechi Guest House.
The Vietnamese youth involved in the kidnapping was also arrested from the same room. According to the police, he was going to take the child to Punjab, India via Birgunj.
The arrested Vietnamese can speak Nepali. He has also said that he knows 17 other languages. The police have also recovered three mobile phones, a laptop, 20,000 Vietnamese currencies, two fake Indian Aadhaar cards and a knife from him.
He is being investigated for kidnapping and holding a person hostage.
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