KATHMANDU, May 4: Police have made some high profile arrests involving a racket accused of sending Nepali nationals to the USA in the guise of Bhutanese refugees.

Within two days after the arrest of former lawmaker Indrajit Rai, police on Wednesday arrested Tek Narayan Pandey, secretary at the Office of the Vice President, for allegedly misusing his authority while he was at the Ministry of Home Affairs to illegally send Nepali citizens as Bhutanese refugees to the USA.

Meanwhile, arrest warrants have also been issued against Pratik Thapa, son of Maoist strongman-turned CPN-UML leader and former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa on charges of fraudulent activities. The junior Thapa has been accused of making quick money on the pretext of sending Nepalis to the USA as Bhutanese refugees.

Another former Maoist leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep Rayamajhi are also allegedly involved in the same racket and arrest warrants have been issued against the duo.

It may be noted that Rai is a former security advisor to the then Home Minister Thapa, whose son is wanted by the police in the latest scam involving a nexus of government officials and high-ranking politicians.

According to police sources, the Kathmandu District Court issued an arrest warrant against Pratik Thapa on Wednesday.

The police had requested the court to issue an arrest warrant saying that Thapa had made financial gains by sending Nepalis as fake Bhutanese refugees to America.  Accordingly, the court issued an arrest warrant, the Kathmandu police source said.

Similarly, the District Police Range, Kathmandu on Wednesday obtained permission from the court to arrest CPN-UML Secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep Rayamajhi in the same case.

The Kathmandu District Court issued the arrest warrants against former minister Raymajhi and his son in the fraud case for sending Nepalis as fake Bhutanese refugees to the USA.

Police said they found the involvement of Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep after some people arrested earlier in connection with the case took their names in their statements given to the police during investigation.

Meanwhile, Nepal Police Spokesperson Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Kuber Kadayat confirmed that Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey Pandey was arrested by a team from the District Police Range Kathmandu on Wednesday.

“Secretary Pandey has been arrested and kept at the District Police Range, Kathmandu on the charge of fraud as he is found to be involved in the illegal business of sending Nepali as Bhutanese refugees to America,” said DIG Kadayat.

Pandey was the Home Secretary before being transferred to the Vice President’s Office. It is said that he colluded with a gang that helped to proceed with the documentation of Nepalis as Bhutanese refugees when he was the secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Nepal Police under instructions of the Ministry of  Home Affairs had launched an investigation into a criminal group involved in fraud on June 14, 2022. The group had allegedly been scamming people for the past five years by promising to fly Nepalis to the USA as Bhutanese refugees.

The victims had filed a case against the group at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority at the end of 2021. However, the case was brought to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office only in June 2022.

According to  Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Kuber Kadayat and the central spokesperson of Nepal Police, among 17 first incident reports (FIR) and 123 formal complaints have been filed with the police citing they were fleeced of millions of rupees in the pretext of sending them to America as Bhutanese refugees.

“The complaints filed by the victims along with the required documents have been forwarded by the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office to the Teku-based District Police Range, Kathmandu for further investigation,” he said, “Preparations are underway to arrest about six people involved in the same case.” 

The police spokesperson said that the arrested persons, in collusion with the racket, have cheated various citizens from Kaski, Dang, Morang, Rukum, among other districts, since 2077 BS.

“Preliminary investigation of the police shows that the victims had paid the group Rs 1.5 million to Rs 2 million just to fill up the forms as Bhutanese refugees,” he said.

Earlier police had arrested five people on the same charge. Sandesh Sharma of Dang, Keshav Dulal and Sagar Rai of Morang, Sanu Bhandari of Lalitpur and Kumar Gurung of Panchthar were arrested. Based on the statements given by the arrested, the police were able to nab the high-profile individuals.

 
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