KATHMANDU: A special court hearing in the high-profile fake Bhutanese refugee scam case involving suspended CPN-UML Secretary and former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi has been scheduled for August 3 after key witness testimonies concluded.
According to Kathmandu District Court Information Officer Dipak Kumar Shrestha, the depositions of complainants, witnesses, and document verifiers in the case have been completed, prompting the court to set the next hearing date.
Rayamajhi, who is also a suspended Member of Parliament elected from Arghakhanchi, has been in pre-trial detention for over two years.
During testimony, witness Prem Raj Panthi, who had initially filed the complaint with the District Police Office in Teku, stated under cross-examination by defense lawyer Dharmaraj Regmi that he had only signed the complaint and did not provide the full details himself.
Panthi testified that he had met key accused Sanu Bhandari and Keshav Dulal several times at a restaurant owned by Tanka Gurung but clarified that neither Rayamajhi nor his aide Leela Jaisi were present during those meetings.
He further noted that while he had met Sanu Bhandari at the fourth floor of Everest Hotel, he had never met Top Bahadur Rayamajhi in connection with the case.
Rayamajhi was arrested on May 14, 2023 (Baisakh 31, 2080) after being named as an assisting defendant in the organized crime and fraud case, which includes serious charges such as forgery and crimes against the state. He was taken into custody after the Kathmandu District Police Office issued an arrest warrant on May 3, 2023.
On June 16, 2023, Judge Prem Prasad Nyaupane’s single bench ordered his remand into pre-trial detention.
Rayamajhi’s appeal for bail at the High Court and Supreme Court was rejected, and the lower court’s decision to keep him in custody was upheld.
Meanwhile, other prominent figures accused in the same scam, including Nepali Congress leader Bal Krishna Khand, Rayamajhi’s son Sandeep Rayamajhi, Angtawa Sherpa, and Govinda Chaudhary, continue to remain in custody after failing to secure bail from the Supreme Court.
In a related development, another co-defendant, Tek Nath Rizal, was declared mentally unfit to stand trial by the Patan High Court.
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