Birgunj Mayor Singh admits during interrogation of having two wives

Published On: February 11, 2024 07:50 PM NPT By: Bimala Gupta

BIRGUNJ, Feb 11: Rajesh Man Singh, the mayor of Birgunj Metropolitan Municipality, has admitted that Rubina Shrestha is his own biological daughter. Singh admitted to the investigation team that he has two wives and that Rubina, who is previously alleged to be Singh’s 'fake' daughter, is his own daughter.

The interrogation was conducted by a team headed by Under Secretary Pushkar Rana to investigate the complaint regarding the mayor becoming a fake father of someone’s else’s daughter just to provide citizenship.

Singh clarified that he is not Rubina Shrestha's fake father but her real father, revealing that she was born to his second wife, Rita Bhattarai.

During the interrogation by the team from the Home Ministry, Mayor Singh said that he also had a second wife named Rita Bhattarai but kept it a secret. Shiva Lamsal, assistant chief district officer of Birgunj, stated that the team recorded written, verbal, and video statements from Mayor Singh during the investigation to ascertain the facts.

According to the District Administration Office, the investigation team from the Ministry of Home Affairs grilled Mayor Singh for two and a half hours at the District Administration Office, Parsa, in the citizenship case.

During the interrogation, Mayor Singh admitted that the girl who was given citizenship is his own daughter. But until now, Mayor Singh had publicly stated that he had only one wife and one son. He provided this detail to the election office before the election. The same detail is mentioned in his bank accounts.

Earlier, the inquiry committee formed internally by the District Administration Office, Parsa to investigate the citizenship issue showed the involvement of the employees of the office. The Ministry of Home Affairs then sent a two-member team under the coordination of Under Secretary Pushkar Rana to Birgunj for further investigation.

According to sources at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the investigation team consisting of Section Officer Parshuam Pokharel will also investigate the disappearance of the original file of citizenship records from the District Administration Office, including the employees involved in it and those who recommended issuing citizenship to Rubina Shrestha.