Pashupati Murarka gets emotional when he recalls his elder brother Mahesh's kidnapping five years ago. During the seven-day ordeal, he nearly collapsed from stress, despair and fatigue.

"This was the most difficult time I ever have had in my life. There are hardly any words to describe the pain I underwent during those days," Murarka, told Khabar South Asia as his eyes filled with tears.

An industrialist like his brother, Mahesh became the victim of a trans-national kidnapping, while Murarka fielded sporadic calls with ransom demands from his captors.

During that harrowing week, members of Murarka's family made a quick decision to send their children to school in neighbouring India – fearing the criminals could target them next.

The kidnappers released Mahesh on his seventh day in captivity – after being paid over Rs 7.7 million (nearly $100,000) in ransom, according to police. The head of the gang that snatched him, Amar Tandan, was arrested in Mumbai on February 24th, 2008.

The incident left the family unsure about doing business in Nepal. Like many businessmen from Nepal's Marwari community who were targeted by kidnappers, Murarka even considered emigrating.

Today, he is vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and feels safer. Police operations in recent years have brought the incidents of kidnapping to a complete halt, not just in the Kathmandu Valley, but also in areas bordering India.

Legislation yield results

Organised kidnapping rackets began to make their presence felt in Nepal in 2006, after Maoist rebels entered national politics. At the time, Nepal had neither legislation on kidnapping, nor police personnel specifically trained to handle the crime.

From mid-July 2006 to mid-July 2009, 77 kidnapping cases were reported in the Kathmandu Valley. Thirty-one cases occurred from July 2009-2010, 16 the following year, and 13 last year, according to the Hanuman Dhoka Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD).

No kidnappings have been reported at all since July. "This has to do with effective police investigations and arrest of all those involved in the kidnapping racket," Crime Division head and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Devendra Subedi told Khabar.

In 2007, the government introduced an anti-kidnapping law and expanded law enforcement training and resources, such as technical analysis needed to trace cell phone calls. Several notable rackets have been busted since then, some operating in Mumbai and some within Nepal.

In February 2008, for example, a special task force of Nepali and Indian police arrested Tandan, whose racket had carried out 16 high-profile kidnappings of Nepali doctors, businessmen and industrialists. He is currently in prison in Kathmandu's Central Jail.

In January, when MPCD busted a kidnapping racket involving Aakash and Bikash Lama, former Nepali minister Shyam Sundar Gupta was exposed as a hidden beneficiary of ransom paid for businessman Pawan Shanghai. Gupta had acted as ransom mediator in the case.

"The arrest of Gupta sent a strong message that police won't spare even the hidden beneficiaries," Subedi, the police official, said.

But K.P. Dhungana, a crime journalist for Nagarik Daily, said Nepal has likely not heard the last from kidnappers, especially during this period of political uncertainty.

"New kidnapping rackets are likely to come up with different modus operandi," he warned.