Wife of exiled pro-democracy Bhutanese leader Tek Nath Rizal, who is in custody in the fake Bhutanese refugees scam, has sought justice claiming that her husband has been jailed in unproven and unfair accusation.
Issuing a press note on Monday Kaushila Rizal, who has been staying in Birtamode, Jhapa, has also accused of long-running maneuverings to undermine her husband's campaign of voluntary return of Bhutanese refugees to Bhutan.
Stating that she has issued the press note to draw attention of the state organs, human rights organizations, and the media she has added that the accusations against the leader who has always fought for rights and justice of persecuted Bhutanese are false.
She has also pointed that her 76-year-old husband suffers from diabetes, hypertension and other ailments and sought judicial compassion considering his past.
Her husband Tek Nath Rizal, however, has accepted that he played a role in the fake Bhutanese refugees scam.
In the statement recorded with the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu—that Setopati has acquired—he has said that he knew about sending Nepali citizens as fake Bhutanese refugees in the past and had stated that he would not have any problem in that if that did not harm any genuine Bhutanese refugees.
Rizal, who was arrested on May 18, has testified in the statement that Sanu Bhandari and Keshav Dulal had set up his meeting with the then deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi four years back.
He has conceded that Rayamajhi and others solicited his help in sending Nepalis as fake Bhutanese refugees during the meeting and he agreed to help if the problems of Bhutanese refugees were to be permanently resolved.
“I had said that I would not have any problem with that if they would not harm Bhutanese while taking Nepalis to a third country in the name of Bhutanese, and can manage the issue by not charging money from Bhutanese,” Rizal has conceded in the statement.
He has added that Rayamajhi promised during that meeting to lobby for resumption of the perks and benefits (monthly allowance, a vehicle and a driver, according to the police) provided to him by the Nepal government earlier but stopped for two years.
He has also claimed that a few Nepalis were also sent to America and other countries along with Bhutanese refugees during the third-country resettlement program that was completed a few years back.
