Former Home Minister of Nepal and atleast a dozen officers have been arrested in connection to Fake Bhutanese refugee scam

 More than 800 people say they were defrauded of millions of rupees by a political-bureaucratic network that promised to issue them fake documents in the name of Bhutanese asylum seekers eligible for resettlement in third countries.

Agencies, May 12, 2023, KATHMANDU:  At least a dozen people including former and current officials from the home ministry and middlemen, have been arrested over the past three weeks along with the former home minister Bal Krishna Khand in connection to the Fake Bhutanese refugee scam.

With the support of home ministry officials, several officials allegedly swindled around 875 Nepali nationals of millions of rupees.

With several of their senior leaders implicated in the scam, Prime Minister and Maoist Centre chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba, and CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli have been meeting almost every day to discuss the investigation process.

The arrest of senior Congress leader Khand has dealt a severe blow to the party. Congress chief Deuba held a meeting with top party leaders on Wednesday evening to discuss the matter and chart out the party’s strategy on the issue.

A team from the Kathmandu Police Circle arrested Khand from his residence in Mainjubahal, Kathmandu on Wednesday morning. Leaked audio circulating on social media appears to claim Khand’s wife Manju had accepted a bribe.

Soon after Khand’s arrest, the CPN-UML suspended its secretary and lawmaker Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who has been absconding since last week after an arrest warrant was issued against him. On Wednesday, the party issued a public statement announcing his suspension while urging him to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

From his undisclosed hiding, Rayamajhi on Wednesday informed the Parliament Secretariat that he was unwell and recuperating at a hospital.

But neither Rayamajhi nor his party, UML, has revealed any information about his condition or the hospital where he is allegedly admitted.

On Wednesday, police also arrested Narendra KC, who served as personal secretary to Khand when he was home minister. Police recorded his statement and obtained permission from the Kathmandu District Court to keep him in custody for investigations for four days.

Khand’s wife, Manju, has also gone out of contact, following her husband’s arrest, according to police. Khand served as home minister from July 12, 2021 to December 26, 2022.

“Earlier we arrested Tek Narayan Pandey who used to be the home secretary when Khand was home minister. And on the basis of his statement, we arrested Khand,” said a senior Nepal Police officer involved in the investigation.

In 2019, then government led by KP Sharma Oli had formed a committee under the then joint secretary Bal Krishna Panthi to recommend ways to manage the Bhutanese refugees who remain in Nepal following the cessation of the third country resettlement programme in 2016-end.

“It has been discovered that the original report prepared by the Panthi-led committee has disappeared from the ministry. This could not have happened without the support of the home minister and home secretary,” said the police officer. “Only a duplicate report that had been tampered with in certain sections was found at the ministry.”

When the committee was formed, UML chair Oli was the prime minister and Ram Bahadur Thapa, currently the party’s vice chair, was the home minister.

Only 429 Bhutanese refugees living in two camps in Jhapa and Morang districts had applied as leftover refugees and asked the Panthi-led committee to include their names in the list of those to be resettled in third countries. The list was then verified by the UN refugee agency and the Refugee Coordination Unit based in Jhapa.

At the same time, the Panthi-led committee received applications from 875 people who wanted to be included in the list of leftover refugees. Since they were not verified refugees, the committee refused to accept their applications.

“Then a group of racketeers led by Keshav Dulal and Sanu Bhandari who are now in police custody, stole the committee report, removed the names of 429 verified leftover refugees and replaced them with another list of 875 persons,” the police officer said, adding, “Backed by the political and bureaucratic leaders, the racketeers added 18 pages to the report and circulated it to lure the people as evidence so that they believe that they are going the US as Bhutanese refugees.”

The racketeers had allegedly managed to steal the Panthi report with the help of home ministry officials including the then home minister Thapa’s security advisor Indrajit Rai.

In the meantime, there was a change in government following Oli’s ouster. Khand became the new home minister.

“Then the racketeers convinced him to form a new sub-committee to verify the new long list of refugees,” the police officer said.

The sub-committee was led by assistant chief district officer of Jhapa, Chomendra Neupane.

“The then home secretary Pandey kept on extending the deadline of the sub-committee as the racketeers created the new list of refugees,” the officer said.

But that sub-committee was derailed by controversy and the work was abandoned, said officials.

With the unearthing of the deep political and bureaucratic nexus, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has expressed its concern about the latest reports of Nepali citizens being duped and defrauded.

Saying that it welcomes the Nepal government’s investigation, it also notified in a statement that “the group resettlement program of refugees from Bhutan in Nepal ended on December 31, 2016 and will not resume again. UNHCR has consistently communicated about the end of the resettlement program.”

Nepal seems to be currently in an uproar due to the involvement of high-ranking political leaders in a fraudulent scam that revolves around fabricating Nepali citizens as Bhutanese refugees and orchestrating their “resettlement” to the United States.

This is nothing but an attempt to illicitly earn money.

This scam has not only created uproar within Nepal but is likely to have a detrimental impact on Nepal’s international reputation.

In fact, if Dr. Sundar Mani Dixit’s remarks are to be considered, this has “criminalized” Nepal in the eyes of the international community, particularly the United States.

Police sources, meanwhile, say the investigation into the scam is reportedly in its “final stage,” indicating significant progress in uncovering the truth behind it.

As of Thursday evening, significant developments have been made in the case, with the police apprehending as many as a dozen individuals. These arrests include top political leaders, government officials, and others.

Police have arrested Bal Krishna Khand, former Home Minister and Nepali Congress’ influential leader; Keshab Dulal, who previously served as the personal secretary to Nepali Congress leader Sujata Koirala; Indrajit Rai, former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal’s Security Advisor; Tek Narayan Pandey, former Home Secretary; Sandeep Rayamajhi, son of Top Bahadur Rayamajhi; Sandesh Sharma, Sagar Rai and Sanu Bhandari.

And alarmingly, following the formation of the task force, the group involved in fabricating fake Bhutanese refugee documents became active, exacerbating the worries surrounding the authenticity of the refugee claims.

Meanwhile, an arrest warrant has been issued against former Deputy Prime Minister and CPN-UML’s Secretary (now suspended) Top Bahadur Rayamajhi for his alleged involvement in the scam.

Despite his party’s instruction to “cooperate with the investigation” Rayamajhi remains at large, evading capture.

Furthermore, arrest warrants have also been issued against Prateek Thapa (son of Ram Bahadur Thapa); Niraj (son of Indrajit Rai), and several others, who are absconding.

The scam has also implicated Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers Manju Khand (wife of Bal Krishna Khand) and Arzu Rana Deuba (wife of Sher Bahadur Deuba).

An audio recording, which is now with the police, indicates the involvement of Arzu Rana and Manju Khand in the scam and had received payments.

Ironically, even Prem Kumar Rai, the Chief of the anti-corruption constitutional body – the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) – too is under scrutiny.

His involvement in the issue has raised concerns, particularly due to the fact that the names of Nepali nationals were included in a report sent to the Council of Ministers office via the Ministry of Home Affairs during his tenure as Home Secretary.

This has brought Rai under scrutiny as questions arise about his potential role in the inclusion of Nepali nationals as Bhutanese refugees.

It should be noted that on June 13, 2019, a task force was formed within Nepal’s Home Ministry headed by Bal Krishna Panthi, who served as the Joint Secretary during that time.

The task force was entrusted with the responsibility to assess the situation of Bhutanese refugees residing in refugee camps in eastern Nepal.

The mandate of the task force was to examine the conditions of the refugees and provide recommendations regarding their potential resettlement in a third country.

During that time, Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal”, who currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of CPN-UML, held the position of Home Minister, while Prem Bahadur Rai, who is now the CIAA Chief, served as the Home Secretary.

The Panthi-led task force prepared and submitted the report stating the presence of 429 individuals who were officially recognized as Bhutanese refugees by the UNHCR.

However, concerns arose about the potential inclusion of individuals with fraudulent claims in the list compiled by the task force.

And alarmingly, following the formation of the task force, the group involved in fabricating fake Bhutanese refugee documents became active, exacerbating the worries surrounding the authenticity of the refugee claims.

Meanwhile, police have also taken into custody Sagar Rai, the former ward chair of Pathari Shanishchare-10, who was actively seeking individuals willing to pay a sum of money in exchange for fraudulent refugee status and an opportunity to migrate to the United States.

Interestingly, Rai’s arrest marked a significant step in the efforts to dismantle the network involved in the fraudulence.

Police sources claimed that these “fake refugees” went to the extent of selling their own properties, including houses.

Shockingly, they also handed over substantial sums of money, ranging from Rs 1-5 million to the members of the group orchestrating the scam.

However, these people did not receive refugee identity cards despite assurances.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a UN agency looking after the refugee issue worldwide, too, expressed serious concerns over the issue.

In the report prepared by the Panthi-led task force, it was recommended that the Home Ministry issued identity cards to 429 individuals who had not passed the verification process.

However, according to sources, the Home Ministry during the tenure of Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, instructed the district administration offices in Jhapa and Morang to re-verify the number of Bhutanese refugees.

According to complaints lodged with the police, the fraudulent scam managed to deceive a total of 81 individuals, resulting in a collective loss of over Rs 136.30 million.

Following the revelation of the scam to the public, the number of complainants has risen to 106 individuals.

Minister for Home Affairs, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, meanwhile, has assured that the government would crack down on the nexus involved in the scam of sending people to the US in the cover of Bhutanese refugees.

Home Minister Shrestha said anyone found guilty in the case would be prosecuted while no innocent would be blamed for the incident.

Describing the scam as one of the forms of organized crime and “a crime against the State”, he said this is not just a case of corruption; it is an organized crime involving the people from top to bottom.

“This is a crime against the State to make the people Statelessness,” he said adding that the government would conclude the matter substantively.

According to him, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, too, has given him what he said is “strong back support”.

Bhutanese refugee issue

In 1990, a large number of Nepali-speaking people from Bhutan (locally called Lhotshampas) were forced to flee from Bhutan – mostly from Southern Bhutan and entered Nepal through India and settled in the districts of Jhapa and Morang.

According to government data, around 113,000 Bhutanese refugees, who were languishing in seven different refugee camps in Nepal’s eastern districts of Jhapa and Morang were resettled in third countries, including the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, and The Netherlands.

Around 90,000 of the refugees were resettled in the US alone.

Meanwhile, presently, as many as 6,577 individuals identifying themselves as Bhutanese refugees are languishing in refugee camps in Morang.

UNHRC’s take

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a UN agency looking after the refugee issue worldwide, too, expressed serious concerns over the issue.

The UN body has also welcomed the investigation being conducted by Nepal Police.

It has made it clear that the resettlement process of the Bhutanese refugees from Nepal was formally closed on December 31, 2016.

According to UNHCR, there was no possibility to start the process again.