Andrew Loh
In June 2008, the media reported a scuffle among a group of Nepalese Gurkhas stationed in Singapore. The dispute was over wages they were receiving.
The Singapore police, at that time, was reported to have said that they were investigating the incident “as an internal one”. According to a Straits Times report on 21 June 2008:
Commenting on the incident, Dr Teo Ho Pin, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Law and Home Affairs, said it was important to ascertain the ‘root of unhappiness’ among the Gurkhas and resolve any issues quickly in order to keep their morale high. (Source)
Nothing further was reported since about how the dispute was resolved.
Now, a Nepalese website has reported that 16 of the men involved in the scuffle were dismissed from the force following the “protest” over pay in Singapore last year. (Source)
After the men returned to Nepal, a group of them staged a kidnapping of forty-eight-year old Rum Bahadur Gurung (right), an officer in the Gurkha contingent here who had returned to Nepal after his retirement from service in Singapore three months earlier. The leader of that protest last June, Sanman Limbu, who was among those dismissed was the mastermind behind Gurung’s kidnapping, according to police.
According to the My Republica website,
An unidentified group of about five persons had whisked away Gurung in a taxi on the morning of March 27 from his residence at Amarawati Colony in Sainbu. The group then began threatening to take life over phone should the victim´s kin failed to pay Rs 65 million in ransom.
The kidnapping was believed to be for revenge over Limbu’s sacking. My Republica reports that Limbu admitted to police that he would not have been sacked from his lucrative job in the Singapore police had Gurung, who was then serving at the administration department with the police force, acted in his favor.
On March 31, after five days in captivity, the Nepalese police rescued Gurung from his kidnappers. Altogether seven men have been arrested for the kidnapping.
“This is the second life I am living now,” Gurung said at a press conference after his rescue. “I am greatly indebted to Nepal Police for their effective rescue operation.”
Read My Republica’s report here.
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