Police have arrested President of Nepal Hajj Committee Shamsher Miya in the fake Bhutanese refugees scam.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police Dan Bahadur Karki at District Police Range, Kathmandu, Miya was arrested from the Ministry of Energy inside Singha Durbar on Thursday morning.
Police recently seized a government vehicle belonging to the Nepal Hajj Committee under the Home Ministry after investigations showed that the racket involved in the scam had repeatedly used the vehicle to transport people with the promise of sending them to America as well as the money collected from such people.
The racket had also changed the number plate of the vehicle multiple times. The vehicle once had the number Ba 1 Jha 1581. It now has an embossed white number plate with the number B-AB1405. It has been kept at the District Police Range, Kathmandu.
According to a police source, the racket is found have traveled to Chitwan in the vehicle. Members of the racket had called several people to Chitwan and interviewed them on the pretext of sending them abroad. They had arrived in Chitwan in the vehicle to make it appear that the interviews were conducted by the Home Ministry.
Police have arrested 14 people before Miya in connection with the scam. They include CPN-UML leader and former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Nepali Congress leader and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, and former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey. Among the 14, only former Nepali Congress lawmaker Angtawa Sherpa has yet to give his statement.
The Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday extended the custody of the 14 by three days.
Miya's connection with Top Bahadur Rayamajhi
Investigations have shown that Miya had given his government vehicle to the racket involved in the scam.
A police source said that the racket had changed the vehicle’s number plate and used it multiple times to carry people as well as money collected from those people with the promise of sending them to America as Bhutanese refugees.
Miya has been the president of the Hajj Committee since 2018. A permanent resident of Butwal, Miya has been appointed repeatedly due to political influence.
He was made the committee’s president because of his close relations with CPN-UML lawmaker and former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who has also been arrested in connection with the scam. He had also left CPN (Maoist Center) and joined UML due to his closeness with Rayamajhi.
In January 2019, then home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa had made Miya the Hajj Committee president on Rayamajhi’s recommendation. His term was later extended when Bal Krishna Khand was home minister.
“He is not somebody who is very committed to the party. He is somebody who switches allegiance based on his self-interests,” a source said. “Badal [Thapa] and Khand also appointed him because he is close to Rayamajhi. As Khand is from the same place, maybe it was easy to work.”
The police source also said that Miya is close to Rayamajhi and has been enjoying a position of benefit due to Rayamajhi’s backing.
“He has been Top Bahadur’s man since the beginning. [He] established relations with everybody later. He is found to have been involved in the refugee case since the beginning. They are friends from Arghakhanchi,” the police source said.
Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Tanka Gurung and Sandesh Sharma had first come up with the fake Bhutanese refugees scam.
Bhandari had told Rayamajhi about their plan to form an inquiry committee on Bhutanese refugees. Bhandari was very close to Rayamajhi and used to call him mama (maternal uncle).
Police investigations have shown that Rayamajhi told then home minister Thapa about the plan as suggested by Bhandari and Thapa’s security advisor Indrajit Rai worked on it.
In their statements to the police, arrested members of the racket have said that they had given Rs 30 million to Rayamajhi, Rs 50 million to Rai and Rs 10 million to Thapa’s son Prateek.
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