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Investigations following the arrest on Sunday of four persons, allegedly involved in the red passport scam, confirmed the involvement of Raya and Rana. [break]
The arrested persons -- including Prithivi Chhantyal, who was deported from Abu Dhabi for traveling on the tampered red passport belonging to lawmaker BP Yadav, who remains suspended -- have disclosed in their preliminary statements given to the police that they had bought a total of four red passports. Chhantyal and the three others who flew abroad on tampered passport, had paid Rs 1.4 million each for the diplomatic document, officials said.
The three others arrested by Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the special arm of Nepal Police, are Manoj Kumar Karki, Gopal Baniya and Dil Bahadur Gharti alias Ashish GC. Karki, Baniya and Gharti are believed to be key members of the red passport racket. According to them, the two persons who used tampered red passports of Raya and Rana succeeded to land in their destinations and have not returned so far.
They also informed the police that the person who bought Raya´s passport has been hiding in Australia. Lawmaker Raya has been at large after CIB sent a letter asking him to produce his passport three months ago.
Police had arrested Yadav and another lawmaker Gayatri Sah, who has also been suspended, two months ago following the findings of multiple agencies that established their nexus in the scam.
The Kathmandu District Court released them last month on a bail amount of Rs 1.4 million each. Both are likely to lose their post as members of the parliament given their weak position in the case. "Raya and Rana will also be put on trial soon," said a high-ranking police offical. "Collecting evidences now would not be as difficult as in the case of Sah and Yadav."
CIB has handed over all four arrested to the Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu for further investigations and legal proceedings.
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