Fake driving license case: 15, including undersecretary, charged with forgery

KATHMANDU: A case has been filed against Undersecretary Keshav Aryal, the head of the Transport Management Office in Butwal, along with 14 others, in connection with the fake driving license scandal.

The District Public Attorney’s Office in Kathmandu filed the case against Aryal and others for forgery-related offenses.

The case file reached the Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday.

The accused include Laxman Pandey, a computer operator at the Butwal Transport Management Office, Padamraj Acharya, Subash Poudel, Ramkrishna Shrestha, a computer officer at the Kawasoti Transport Management Office, Nawalparasi, and Binod Bhandari, a computer operator at the Kaski Transport Management Office.

The charge sheet states that they are accused of illegally issuing driving licenses to individuals who had not initiated any process in the electronic system of the Department of Transport Management, nor participated in written or trial exams, and whose records were not found in the old DL system.

The indictment further accuses them of colluding to enter fake details into the electronic driving license system, allowing for the renewal of licenses without proper procedures.

This involved entering dates and details into the system and conducting biometric verifications to issue fake driving licenses to individuals such as Shaktibahadur Khatri and Harshbahadur Sinjali.