Police have arrested eight persons including actors Marichman Shrestha aka Balchhi Dhurbe and Raju Paudel alias Raju Master on the charge of promoting illegal online gambling. A team of Crime Investigation Office apprehended Shrestha and Paudel among eight persons today, Office spokesperson Rabindra Regmi said. They are accused of doing illegal transactions through a banned online betting app called 1XBet, an online betting platform prohibited by the law of Nepal.

Earlier on Wednesday, police had rounded up five persons involved in organizing illegal gambling and transacting over Rs 7.4 million.

While carrying out an investigation into the same case, police found the involvement of the actors. They were found hosting online gambling and advertising it on YouTube. They are accused of attracting youth through advertisements to play online gambling, which is illegal in Nepal.