KATHMANDU: An additional eighteen individuals, who claim to be victims of the fraudulent fake refugee scheme, have formally lodged complaints with the police station on Monday.

As per the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, these eighteen new victims have come forward to accuse perpetrators of duping them out of substantial sums of money by offering enticing job opportunities in the United States.

The complainants hail from diverse regions including Lamjung, Sunsari, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Lalitpur, Chitwan, and Kathmandu, as detailed by the Crime Investigation Office.

In a series of three distinct complaint letters, the alleged victims have recounted their experiences with Sanu Bhandari and Keshav Dulal, asserting that the two were involved in a scheme that extracted over 18 million 592 thousand rupees from them under the false promise of facilitating their journey to America as Bhutanese refugees.

The Crime Investigation Office has subsequently forwarded these formal complaint letters to the District Police Range in Kathmandu, urging for thorough investigations.

Currently, eighteen individuals, including former Deputy Prime Minister and CPN-UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister and Nepali Congress leader Balkrishna Khand, have been incarcerated in the central prison in Sundhara, serving sentences in connection with the fake refugee scandal.