The Parsa District Court has ordered the release of Birgunj Metropolitan City Mayor Rajesh Man Singh on bail.
On Tuesday, a bench of Judge Gayatri Prasad Regmi ordered Singh’s release on bail in both cases against him, according to Information Officer Jay Narayan Yadav.
Yadav said that Singh was ordered to post a bail of Rs 15,000 for the charge of obtaining citizenship by submitting false information and Rs 400,000 for the document-related offense.
An arrest warrant had been issued for Singh on May 22. Police arrested him from Thori, Parsa, on Monday morning and presented him before the court.
The Parsa District Court had issued arrest warrants against Singh, Rita Bhattarai of Indrawati Municipality in Sindhupalchowk, and Bhikhari Ray, then-local registrar of Ward No. 3 of Birgunj Metropolitan City, in connection with a document-related case.
Mayor Singh is accused of falsely registering Rubina Shrestha, the daughter of Rita Bhattarai, as his own daughter and helping her obtain citizenship based on a fraudulent birth registration. He is also accused of registering another person’s daughter as his own, securing citizenship and passport documents, and sending her abroad.
A case is currently pending against Singh in the Parsa District Court on charges of document fraud and obtaining citizenship and passport through false information. The arrest warrant was issued specifically in relation to the citizenship document fraud case.
Under Section 276(1), (2), and (3)(c) of the National Penal Code, 2017, forgery of government or public documents is punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 70,000.
