Prosecutors have filed a case in a Nepalese court against 30 people, including a former deputy prime minister, a former interior minister and a prominent rights activist, for allegedly taking money from Nepali citizens in exchange for promises to provide…
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Prosecutors filed a case in a Nepalese court on Wednesday against 30 people, including a former deputy prime minister, a former interior minister and a prominent rights activist, for allegedly taking money from Nepali citizens in exchange for promises to provide documents falsely identifying them as Bhutanese. refugees eligible to be relocated abroad.
The case has shaken Nepal’s political world because the arrested politicians belong to both the ruling coalition and the opposition.
Prosecutors filed the case in Kathmandu District Court after weeks of investigation.
It was unclear whether anyone has gone abroad using fake refugee documents.
The accused include former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand. They also include Tek Nath Rizal, who campaigned for the rights of ethnic Nepalese minorities in Bhutan and was imprisoned for years by the Bhutanese government and later exiled to Nepal.
Sixteen of the accused have been arrested and police are looking for the others.
More than 100,000 ethnic Nepalis, a Hindu minority in Bhutan for centuries, were forced to leave the country in the 1990s and lived as refugees in eastern Nepal until most were resettled in western countries.
Many of those resettled went to the United States, which is a dream destination for many Nepalese who hope to migrate for better education and job opportunities.
