Nepal court sends 16 to judicial custody in fraud Bhutanese refugee scam

Jun 17, 2023

Kathmandu (Nepal), June 17 (ANI): The Kathmandu district court on Friday sent 16 defendants including a former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister to judicial custody in a fake Bhutanese refugee scam. The court made the preliminary verdict over the case and sent Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former Deputy Prime Minister, and Bal Krishna Khand, former Home Minister to jail thus making it one of the high-profile cases of Nepal. A single bench of Justice Prem Prasad Neupane delivered the verdict late on Friday evening passing the court hours following the conclusion of a marathon detention hearing that went on for nearly a fortnight. Two of the indicted in the case to be released on bail are Tanka Kumar Gurung and Laxmi Maharjan who have been slapped with the amount of NRs 1 million and half a million Nepali rupees, respectively. The District Attorney Office Kathmandu on May 24 filed criminal cases at the District Court Kathmandu against 30 individuals allegedly involved in the refugee scam. According to the charge sheet of the attorney's office, the accused had been indicted for crimes against the state as they were involved in offences provisioned in sections 51 (1) and 2 (a) of the Criminal Code Act-2017. As per the section, nobody should act against national interest or encourage others to do so and nobody should act in a way that impairs the country's image internationally. Nepal's Home Ministry had formed a task force to find out the ways for remaining Bhutanese refugees who were denied resettlement. The investigative report by CIJ disclosed the infiltration by a government official- Rai in the report where he managed to manipulate the number of "left out" refugees for resettlement.