CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has said that he had heard about the scam of turning Nepali citizens into fake Bhutanese refugees when he was prime minister (PM) and instructed the then home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and the National Investigation Department to look into the matter.
“I summoned the home minister and the NID and heard from them about the Bhutanese refugees. I told them to properly look into the matter but we left the government after that,” Oli told reporters after meeting PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the Singha Durbar on Thursday. “I don’t know what happened on that once we left the government.”
He claimed how a check issued in the name of UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi’s son four years ago was still with the person issuing the check and hinted at conspiracy to implicate Rayamajhi. “The situation to suddenly conspiratorially arrest sitting lawmaker Rayamajhi who became minister multiple times while walking on the street now on the basis of that is mysterious,” he stated. “I talked with him yesterday evening and asked if he knew anything about issue of arrest warrant in his name. He said that he talked with the IGP, and it should be clarified once.”
Oli revealed that Rayamajhi said that he was coming to Kathmandu during their phone conversation. “Some say the person who said he would come to Kathmandu has been arrested, while others say he is absconding. Don’t know what it is.”
He said that he drew attention of PM Dahal toward the issue during their meeting.
Rayamajhi’s son Sandeep was arrested from Butwal on Wednesday in connection to the scam and has been brought to Kathmandu on Thursday.
Other people arrested over involvement in the scam had taken the names of Rayamajhi and his son in their statements.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Kathmandu District Court had issued an arrest warrant for Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep for investigation of the scam that swindled tens of millions from Nepali citizens with the promise of sending them to America as Bhutanese refugees, according to a Nepal Police source.
Rayamajhi is currently House of Representatives (HoR) member from Arghakhanchi.
Former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey has also been arrested in the scam. Pandey was arrested after he reached the Kathmandu Police on Wednesday after being summoned.
Pandey was home secretary from August 11, 2021, to September 18, 2022. He is currently secretary at the Office of the Vice-president, but he has been suspended following his arrest.
Advisor to the then home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Indrajit Rai, was arrested on Tuesday over involvement in the scam. An arrest warrant has also been issued against Rai’s son Niraj Rai in the case but he has yet to be arrested.
Rai, who was advisor to the then home minister Thapa in 2017, was arrested from Sunakothi, Lalitpur, on Tuesday morning.
Investigations have showed that Rai had connived with one Keshav Dulal and others to collect tens of millions of rupees from several people promising to send them to America as Bhutanese refugees when Thapa was home minister.
“We will include facts about his involvement in the file. It is not the time to reveal that,” Chief of Kathmandu Police Range SSP Dan Bahadur Karki told Setopati. “We have arrested him and moved the investigations forward as he had to be arrested now.”
Rai had facilitated with the Home Ministry to create fake Bhutanese refugees, according to a police officer involved in the investigations, and was arrested after the police collected evidence establishing his involvement.
Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhattarai, Tanka Kumar Gurung, Sandesh Sharma and Sagar Rai have already been arrested in the case.
Dulal would deploy Sagar Rai and others to collect details and money from the victims, and also coordinate with Thapa’s advisor Rai at the Home Ministry, the investigations have showed. Indrajit Rai has been arrested after the others arrested in the case took his name in their statement.
“We have been told that Rai also took money. We will also look at his bank accounts,” the officer added.
Rai allegedly took more than Rs 50 million in the scam. “He seems to have done all the necessary things inside the Home Ministry. He seems to have played a major role in arranging things inside the ministry.”
Another police source stated that Rai played a role when he was advisor to Thapa while others also played a role after that.
The Home Ministry had formed a task force under the then Joint Secretary Bal Krishna Panthi in 2018 to identify previously unrecorded Bhutanese refugees. The task force had submitted its report to the Home Ministry but it was not made public leading to suspicion that fake refugees were included in that report itself.
Kathmandu Police acquired that report from the Home Ministry in April for investigation. A source claimed that over 800 fake refugees were included in that report. Genuine refugees were included only in four schedules of the report while the remaining names were added later, according to the source.
The police are also planning to arrest others who facilitated the scam after Indrajit Rai.
The Kathmandu Valley Crime Division had first received a complaint accusing Keshav Dulal and others of fraud by creating fake Bhutanese refugees. Police arrested Dulal and sent the file to Kathmandu Police for further investigation.
Police are investigating them under Fraud and Organized Crime.
