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Dawa Setti in the inset.

Kathmandu, Dec 26: Police probing the Rs 140 million robbery at Pride Casino have found links between the suspect in custody and an Indian syndicate known for cheating casinos using magnetized playing cards and eye lenses.

Investigators say the connection leads to the Indian “Mahakaya” group, which allegedly used magnetic cards and special eye lenses to identify cards from the back. The link has surfaced with 42-year-old Dawa Setti, also known as Dawa Sherpa of Boudha, who is currently in custody in connection with the Pride Casino robbery.

The robbery took place at Pride Casino inside the five-star Hyatt Regency Hotel in Boudha. Police are investigating Setti on charges of organized crime and armed robbery. The crime allegedly occurred during the Gen Z protests on September 8 and 9, when Rs 140 million in cash was looted from the casino. A formal complaint has been filed with the police.

Kathmandu District Police Range SP Pawan Kumar Bhattarai confirmed that Setti has links with the Mahakaya group.

Police say the Mahakaya operation in Nepal was managed by a group led by Janardan Upreti, also known as Binod, commonly referred to as the BP Group. Upreti is described as the main local organizer. He arranged hotels, flight tickets, table bookings, and payments for casino and hotel bills. He also managed dummy players and dealer-level staff and personally participated in gambling.

Police say Upreti paid Rs 1.5 million in cash to keep dummy players at a hotel loft. Through him, 12 sets of magnetic playing cards were brought into the casino. Police also seized 38 sealed packs of such cards from hotel storage, along with two sets of eye lenses. One dummy player was caught wearing the lenses, while two others fled wearing them.

The Mahakaya group has allegedly run similar casino events in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Vietnam over the past two years. Police suspect large-scale fraud using the same method.

The group allegedly booked casinos, organized events themselves, supplied manipulated cards, and deployed dummy players trained in India. These players received daily payments of Indian Rs 10,000 and 10 percent of winnings.

Police raided the venue on the first day of the planned event, preventing any financial settlement.

Those arrested include Indian nationals Suresh Mahajan, Dinesh Verma, Bikram Singh, Pramod Maurya, and Nepali nationals Chija Khadka and Bhawani Pandey. Several others, including casino operators and key organizers, remain absconding.

People’s News Monitoring Service