Police have 15 more days to investigate the fake Bhutanese refugees scam and submit the case to the District Government Attorney’s Office.
The District Police Range, Kathmandu, has so far arrested eight people in the case.
Former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s security advisor Indrajit Rai, CPN-UML Secretary and lawmaker Top Bahadur Rayamajhi’s son Sandeep Rayamajhi, Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Tanka Kumara Gurung, Sandesh Sharma and Sagar Rai are currently in police custody.
Arrest warrants have also been issued against UML Secretary Rayamajhi, Indrajit Rai’s son Niraj Rai and former home minister Thapa’s son Prateek Thapa, but they are absconding.
Police had initially investigated the scam as a fraud case, but now they are investigating it under organized crime. 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.
Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Tanka Kumara Gurung have been in police custody for the past 45 days as they were arrested on March 26. Police have been extending custody of people arrested on different dates after that.
Based on the length of stay in custody of those who were arrested first, the District Police Range, Kathmandu, now has 15 days to investigate the case and hand it to the District Government Attorney’s Office.
After the police submit the case, the District Government Attorney’s Office will study the report and take it to the Kathmandu District Court to register the case, according to Kathmandu’s district attorney Laxman Upadhyaya Ghimire.
“Police will submit the report to us. We will have to study it and register the case by the 61st day,” Ghimire said.
Police will also produce the arrested people in the court during the process.
Ghimire said that the investigation report will also include the names of those who need to be arrested for investigation and those against whom arrest warrants have been issued by the Kathmandu District Court.
If the police fail to arrest them during this period, they need to declare them fugitives and submit the report.
There is also a legal provision that allows fugitives to surrender directly in court even after a case has already been filed.
If other people are dragged into the case or need to be arrested, then police can move ahead with the investigation by keeping them in custody.
Section 35 of the National Criminal Procedure (Code) Act, 2017 allows additional claims to be made against the accused.
“If, based on the other relevant additional evidence found after a case has already been filed in the court, it appears necessary to make a charge also against other accused in that case, in addition to the accused against whom the case has already been filed, or to make additional charge against the person who has already been made accused upon the filing of the case, the government attorney may, setting out the reasons therefor, cause further investigation to be conducted, and file a case, making additional claim against the other additional accused also,” it states.
If additional evidence is found after a case has already been filed in court, changes can be made in the charge sheet as per Section 36 of the Act.
Ghimire said that the District Police Range, Kathmandu, and the District Government Attorney’s Office have both been working to submit the case on time.
The District Government Attorney’s Office is currently taking statements of the arrested and others connected with the case.
Police have also been searching for fugitives including UML Secretary Rayamajhi. A Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) team has been deployed to search for Rayamajhi as he is suspected to have fled to India.
The District Police Range, Kathmandu, has also issued a circular to all 77 districts to arrest him.
A number of people including political leaders and their sons have been accused of involvement in the scam that swindled tens of millions of rupees from Nepalis with the promise of sending them to America as Bhutanese refugees. Investigations show that the group had received money from people from Jhapa, Morang, Dang and other districts.
The Home Ministry had 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 the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Prem Bahadur Rai was the home secretary.
The report prepared by the Panthi-led task force identified 429 people authenticated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as Bhutanese refugees. Police are now preparing to question Panthi after questions were raised that a few fake refugees may have been included even in that list.
Victims of the scam had filed complaints at the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office on June 1, 2022. But police started investigating the case by arresting Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari and Tanka Kumara Gurung only on March 26 this year.
