Kathmandu District Court begins hearing on fake Bhutanese refugee case

Kathmandu. KATHMANDU — The Kathmandu District Court has started hearing a case filed against former Home Minister and other high-ranking officials on the charge of taking Nepali nationals to the United States as fake Bhutanese refugees. A single bench of District Judge Dhruba Raj Karki will conduct the hearing.

According to the charge sheet, it is claimed that an organized gang prepared fake documents and turned Nepali citizens into Bhutanese refugees.TAG_OPEN_p_13 The court is going to hear the last hearing after about 2 and a half years.

The case was filed on May 23, 2080 against former Deputy Prime Minister and CPN-UML leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, then Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, former lawmaker Angatawa Sherpa and security advisor to then Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Indrajit Rai, among others.TAG_OPEN_p_12

After

}, a supplementary charge sheet was filed against 5 people including Keshav Dulal and another person Bechan Jha. Apart from the detention hearing, all the three cases are being heard.

The court has already summoned the absent witnesses. In the preliminary hearing, some of the accused were kept in custody and the trial proceeded while some of the accused were released on bail from the High Court.

Former TAG_OPEN_p_9 deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, his son Sandip Rayamajhi, former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, former home minister Narendra KC, then home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, former Constituent Assembly member Angatawa Sherpa, then Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s son Prateek Thapa, security advisor Indrajit Rai and his son Niraj Rai are among the defendants in the case.

A case is pending against the main middlemen Keshav Dulal and his wife Deepa Humagain, other middlemen Sanu Bhandari, Sandesh Sharma and more than 2 dozen people working in the gang’s network.TAG_OPEN_p_8

Of the 18 arrested when the case was filed, two were granted bail and 16 were remanded in custody.TAG_OPEN_p_7 Some of the 12 absconding have been arrested but some are still absconding.