Five days. That is how long Kathmandu police now have to build a case against Mukesh Prajapati, the 25-year-old Bhaktapur man arrested Friday for running illegal cryptocurrency transactions worth more than Rs 14.87 million. The Kathmandu District Court granted a five-day remand.
What happens after that window closes will determine whether this case becomes a template for prosecuting digital fraud in Nepal. Prajapati, a resident of Madhyapur Thimi-5, sits in police custody.
Investigators from the Kathmandu District Police Office say they have already traced cryptocurrency transactions totaling Rs 148,76,527.46. They also recovered digital assets worth 7,485 US dollars — about Rs 1.14 million — from his accounts. But the five-day remand is short.
Officers must now locate victims, freeze remaining assets, and build a chain of evidence that holds up in court. The method was straightforward.
According to police spokesperson Superintendent Pawan Kumar Bhattarai, Prajapati used social media to lure people with various inducements. He defrauded them. Then he converted the money into cryptocurrency.
For families across the Kathmandu Valley still learning to spot online scams, the case lands close to home. Bhaktapur residents in particular will be watching to see if more victims come forward in the coming days. This arrest does not happen in a vacuum.
Nepal Rastra Bank, the country’s central bank, has repeatedly classified cryptocurrency transactions as illegal. The law is clear.
But enforcement has been uneven. Digital assets move across borders and wallets in seconds. Tracing them requires technical capability that many local police units are still developing.
The Prajapati case will test how far that capability has come. The court will likely demand a progress report when the five days expire.
At that point, prosecutors must decide whether to file charges or request additional time. If the evidence holds, Prajapati could face criminal penalties under Nepal’s foreign exchange and electronic transaction laws. Conviction would send a signal to others running similar schemes from apartments in Bhaktapur, Thimi, or anywhere in the valley.
What remains unknown is the full scale of the operation. Police have confirmed Rs 14.87 million in transactions. But social media fraud often goes unreported.
Victims may be embarrassed. Or they may not know they were defrauded until the scam is public.
The investigation could widen as more people recognize the pattern and contact authorities. For now, the case moves on a tight clock. Five days.
A 25-year-old suspect. A digital trail worth millions.
And a legal system that has not yet fully caught up with cryptocurrency. The outcome will be watched closely — not just by police and prosecutors, but by the families who lost money, and by the people still active in Nepal’s underground crypto network.
