Police arrested a 66-year-old Swiss national on the charge of sexually abusing minors. Senior Superintendent of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh, in-charge at Metropolitan Police Crime Division, said Peter Christian Langendorf (passport number X3317396) of Switzerland who was staying in Nepal as a ‘hotel entrepreneur and social worker’ for several years lured children of poor and disadvantaged groups with money and delicacies. He was one of the partners of Chuchchepati-based Trigger Inn and Welcome Heritage Inn near Bhaktapur Durbar Square. Similarly, he was also operating Langtang Education Project and Edu-core Swiss Nepal in Rasuwa, preliminary investigation shows. The Swiss national was held from Chuchchepati yesterday. “In one instance, Langendorf befriended a 16-year-old boy on Facebook and stayed in regular touch with the minor. Consequently, he called the boy to various hotels in Chuchhepati and Bhaktapur and molested the victim repeatedly,” said SSP Singh. The Swiss national also gave hush money to maintain their relationship secret. The suspect has confessed to molesting the boy rescued by police. Officials said they were keeping constant vigil acting on information that some foreign citizens were molesting children and making them victims of paedophilia. The arrest of the Swiss national was part of this operation. Langendorf was handed over to Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, for investigation. Sexual exploitation of minors by some foreigners, especially men, has become a growing problem in Kathmandu valley. Seven foreigners were arrested in connection with paedophilia over a period of two years. Of them, six were held from the valley. Minors are soft targets since they cannot resist the perpetrators, police informed. According to Number 9(A) of Chapter 14 of Muluki Ain, a person who commits sodomy (any kind of unnatural sexual intercourse) with a minor shall be considered to have committed an offence of rape and the offender shall be liable to up to 11 years of imprisonment. The court may also make an order to provide appropriate compensation to such a minor from the offender upon considering the age and trauma suffered by the minor.