KATHMANDU, August 2: The Patan High Court has demanded the ‘Detailed Report’ on the case of the accused who are in custody under the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Under the case, the Kathmandu District Court issued a detention order on June 16. According to that order, 16 people including former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former Home Minister Balkrishna Khand, and Bhutanese refugee leader Tek Nath Rijal were sent to prison for pre-trial detention.

The High Court, while hearing the petition of 15 accused persons except the refugee leader Rijal among those who are in prison, has sought a detailed report from the lower court. In court parlance, the details of the relevant case before the court and the order passed in that regard are called Detailed Report.

According to the Patan High Court, 15 of the 16 accused who are in custody have filed a petition in the High Court demanding that they be released on their own recognizance,  for the trial of the case, claiming that the order of the district court is unfair. High Court Spokesperson Deputy-Registrar Mandira Shahi said that the accused have filed separate applications on different dates.

“There were 15 applications up to July 29. There has been an order to pay attention to those petitions and ask for bail petitions from the district court," Spokesperson Shahi said.

Spokesperson Shahi further said that the two people whose detailed reports are yet to be received are former Deputy Prime Minister Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Khand. She said, “Since the applications of the two of them came late, the submission of their applications to the court was also delayed. Therefore, it might take time to get the report!” According to her, the hearing on Rayamajhi's application was held on July 28 by the bench of Judge Mahendranath Upadhyaya.

The hearing on Khand's application was on July 30 before the bench of Judge Hariprasad Paudel. Shahi, spokesperson for Patan High Court, said that the hearing on the application of the accused, who had received a report of the details from the district court till Thursday, will take place on Friday.

Until Thursday, the remaining petitioners who couldn't come will have to appear on another date. Based on the investigation report by the District Police Office, Kathmandu, the District Government Attorney Office, Kathmandu, had filed cases against 30 individuals in five different cases at the district court. The Government Attorney Office had lodged a complaint on May 24 related to fraud, crimes against the state, and organized crimes in the five cases.

District Judge Prem Prasad Neupane's bench in this case sent 16 out of the 18 people who were immediately arrested to jail for pre-trial detention and released two people on bail. Former Deputy Prime Minister Rayamajhi and his son Sandeep Rayamajhi, former Home Minister Khand and his personal secretary Narendra KC, former Home Secretary Teknarayan Pandey, former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa's advisor Indrajit Rai, former assembly members Angtawa Sherpa, Sanu Bhandari, Keshav Dulal, Sagar Rai, Sandesh Sharma, Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, Ram Sharan KC, Shamsher Miya, Bhutanese refugee leader Rijal and Haribhakta Maharjan are among those who are in prison for pre-trial detention.

Among the remaining two, Tanka Gurung was released on a bond of Rs 1,000,000 and Laxmi Maharjan on Rs 500,000. Keshav Tuladhar, who was arrested later, was also released on a bail of Rs 1,500,000. Tuladhar is in the custody of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam. Although the accused, who was remanded in custody under the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, went to the High Court against the detention order, the case is still under consideration at the district court. 

 
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