Implication of leaders of the main political parties in the scam to swindle tens of million with promise to send Nepali citizens to America as fake Bhutanese refugees scam has rocked the country now.
Setopati has prepared a briefing to explain this scam to the readers.
Let’s first look at the back-ground.
The communal Bhutanese government in 1990 expelled Lhotshampas—Bhutanese people of Nepali descent—as part of the state-orchestrated ethnic cleansing. A large number of those expelled by the state and fleeing persecution entered Nepal from the east and started staying in the eastern districts including Jhapa and Morang.
Refugee camps were established in Beldangi, Goldhap, Khudunabari and Timai of Jhapa; and Pathri Sanishchare of Morang.
Nepal gradually started resettlement of Bhutanese refugees in western countries after failing to get them repatriated to Bhutan despite repeated rounds of dialogue with the Bhutanese government. A total of 113,307 Bhutanese refugees were resettled in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Britain, Netherlands and other countries by 2019.
A few Bhutanese refugees still remained in Nepal despite the third-country resettlement program. Some of them wanted to get back to Bhutan and others wanted to live in Nepal. A total of 3,050 Bhutanese refugees stayed in Nepal after the third-country resettlement program, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The number may be around 6,600, according to the government, as identity card for refugees were not distributed after 2012.
The Home Ministry formed a task force under the then Joint Secretary Bal Krishna Panthi through a minister-level decision on June 13, 2019 to study the state of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and provide recommendation/consultation for third-country resettlement. Current CPN-UML Vice-chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa was the home minister while current Chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Prem Bahadur Rai was the home secretary.
The report prepared by the Panthi-led task force identified 429 authenticated by the UNHCR as Bhutanese refugees. The police are now preparing to question Panthi after questions have been raised that a few fake refugees may have been included even in that list.
The report stated that it would be best for the government to take diplomatic initiative with the countries concerned to resettle them as earlier after concluding the issue of registration of refugees included in Schedules 7 and 9, who have applied claiming that they were not registered, as Bhutan had not repatriated even a single refugee and had not showed any inclination to repatriate them.
The racket has found to have added Nepali citizens by including sub-categories (a) and (b) in Schedule 9 of that report. The government has yet to formally make that report public.
Devendra Bhattarai has reported in Kantipur that a total of 875 fake refugees have been added in the schedule of the report in that manner.
The Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office has claimed that a racket has been active since 2019 to swindle Nepali citizens by promising to send them to America as fake Bhutanese refugees.
Investigation has showed that the task force was formed on initiation of that racket and fake refugees were included in its report. Chairman of the then Mahankal Rural Municipality in Lalitpur Ganesh KC, with no known expertise about refugee affairs, was included in that task force as an expert. “Home minister had provided name of three persons to keep in the task force formed to resolve the refugee problem. Don’t know who Ganesh KC out of them was,” the then home secretary Rai has been quoted as saying in the Kantipur report.
The racket swindled over Rs 136.30 million from 81 persons, as per the different complaints filed with the police, at the rate of Rs 1.5-2 million per person. The number of complainants has increased to 106 after the scam was made public.
The police initiated investigation of the scam after victims Gajendra Budhathoki and Ram Kumar Regmi lodged complaint on June 1, 2022. Over Rs 230 million seems to have been swindled as per the complaints filed with the police until now.
The police have arrested eight persons in the case until now.
Former personal secretary to NC leader Sujata Koirala, Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Tanka Man Gurung, advisor to former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Indrajit Rai, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, son of CPN-UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Sandeep Rayamajhi, Sandesh Sharma and Sagar Rai have already been arrested.
Arrest warrants have also been issued in the names of Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Ram Bahadur Thapa’s son Prateek Thapa, Indrajit Rai’s son Niraj and others. Niraj allegedly collected tens of millions reaching different hotels in the Kathmandu Valley. They are currently absconding.
Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Tanka Gurung, Sandesh Sharma and Sagar Rai are the main accused in the case, and the police have initiated investigation about involvement of top political leadership and senior Home Ministry officials on the basis of their statements.
Former energy minister and CPN-UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi is the most high profile person implicated in the case.
The racket has been found to have used even the Home Ministry’s official logo to forge identity cards and travel documents for the fake refugees.
The police say that investigation has found transfer of Rs 6.50 million by the victims to bank accounts of different persons. The racket had even issued a check of Rs 80 million promising to return the money if the scam were to fail.
Names of Nepali Congress (NC) leader and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, his wife and NC lawmaker Manju Khand and NC lawmaker Arzu Rana Deuba—wife of NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba—have also been dragged in the scam.
An audio recording submitted to the police by a complainant claims that Arzu and Manju Khand were also paid in the scam.
The police have told Setopati that they have kept 30 minutes of the dialogue of that audio recording safely and are investigating it.
“Rs 25 million has been submitted to Arzu. Rs 60 million has been submitted to Bal Krishna Khand, Manju Devi received at home. They have home in Hanumanthan, she received that there,” the victim has claimed in the recording.
The police are investigating involvement of former home minister Khand. The Home Ministry had written to the District Administration Office, Jhapa on June 10, 2022 (when Khand was home minister) to study the report prepared by the Panthi-led task force and submit a report including its opinion and recommendation about the left-behind Bhutanese refugees.
Former Nepal Police AIG Bigyan Raj Sharma has accused the then home minister Khand of helping in release of two persons arrested in connection to the scam. The Khands and Arzu have all denied involvement in the scam.
The Kathmandu Police had initially investigated the scam as a fraud case. It is now investigating it under organized crime. The police get 60 days for investigation of cases of organized crime while the quantum of punishment is also higher in cases of organized crime than that of fraud.
