The Patan High Court has issued an order to conduct a single hearing on all the petitions filed against the Kathmandu District Court’s order to remand those accused in the fake Bhutanese refugees case to custody.
A joint bench of Judges Hari Prasad Paudel and Kiran Kumar Pokharel on Thursday ordered that all the petitions against the Kathmandu District Court’s order be heard together.
Narendra KC, Tek Narayan Pandey, Sanu Bhandari, Ang Tawa Sherpa, Indrajit Rai, Hari Bhakta Maharjna, Laxmi Maharjan, Sandesh Sharma, Shamsher Miya and Govinda Chaudhary have all filed separate petitions against the district court’s order.
KC and Pandey had filed their petitions on July 28, and the rest on August 2. Other defendants have also filed petitions against the district court’s order to keep them in custody.
The district court had ordered Laxmi Maharjan to be released on a bail of Rs 500,000. She had also filed a petition at the high court against the court’s order.
On Monday, 18 more victims of the scam lodged three complaints at the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office. The victims have claimed that they were defrauded of over Rs 18.59 million.
The district court had released three accused in the case on bail and remanded 17 others to custody on June 16.
Former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, former Constituent Assembly member Ang Tawa Sherpa, Sanu Bhandari, Keshav Dulal, Sagar Rai, Sandesh Sharma, Indrajit Rai, Sandeep Rayamajhi, Narendra KC, Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, Ram Sharan KC, Shamsher Miya, Bhutanese refugee leader Tek Nath Rizal, Hari Bhakta Maharjan and Ashish Budhathoki are currently in custody for investigation in the case.
The court had sought bails of Rs 1 million from Tanka Gurung, Rs 500,000 from Laxmi Maharjan, and Rs 1.5 million from Keshav Tuladhar.
Tuladhar had posted bail, but the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police arrested him in connection with the Baluwatar land grab scam soon after his release.
On May 14, the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, had filed cases of fraud, document forgery, offense against the state and organized crime against 30 individuals in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugees scam.
