KATHMANDU:  The District Court Kathmandu has sent all 16  individuals, including former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, accused in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam to pre-trial detention.

Judge Prem Prasad Neupane’s bench decided that 16 be detained. However, the bench directed to release Laxmi Maharjan and Tanka Gurung on bail. The court sought Rs 500 thousand from Maharjan and Rs 1 million from Gurung as the bail amount.

The public prosecutor’s counter-argument in the case relating to fake Bhutanese refugees ended on Friday.

The debate that started last Sunday ended after two weeks.

As the custodial arguments of the lawyers of the 18 defendants who were arrested ended on Thursday, the public prosecutor gave a counter-argument in the case today.

18 people, including Nepali Congress leader Balkrishna Khand, who is also the former home minister, former deputy prime minister and CPN UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep, were arrested on charges of being involved in fraud by sending Nepalese citizens as fake Bhutanese refugees to America.

It should be recalled that the District Attorney Office Kathmandu had on May 24, 2023, filed criminal cases at the District Court, Kathmandu against 30 individuals including Rayamajhi and Khand.

They were prosecuted for four types of crimes, including organised crime –treason, and fraud and forgery.

They were charge-sheeted for collecting Rs 288.17 million from a total of 115 people (victims) ranging from Rs two lakhs to Rs 4.8 million vowing them to send to the United States in disguise of Bhutanese refugees.

The accused individuals include former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Bhutanese refugee leader Teknath Rijal, Indrajit Rai, Angtawa Sherpa, Shamsher Miya, Tek Narayan Pandey, Sanu Bhandari, Govinda Chaudhary and Ram Sharan KC.

Others include Sandesh Sharma, Narendra KC, Tanka Gurung, Sagar Rai, Keshav Dulal, Laxmi Maharjan and Hari Bhakta Maharjan.

Out of the 30 accused in the case, 12 are still absconding.

It should be noted that the government led by Prime Minister KP Oli on July 14, 2019, formed a task force under the leadership of Bal Krishna Panthi, the then Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, to study and gather evidence about the genuine Bhutanese refugees left out of the registration process.

During that period, Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal” was the Home Minister and Indrajit Rai his Security Advisor.

Indrajit, Badal’s son Pratik, and others were found to have supported the gang which collected more than Rs 56 million from individuals promising them to send to the United States.

The Panthi-led task force submitted the report to Prem Rai, the then Home Secretary.

Some victims in the scam even named Rai, who is currently the Chief at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), for his involvement in the scam.