Although the police recommended 33 people to be made defendants, former vice president of the Airline Operators Association, Rajendra Bahadur Singh, was not made a defendant.
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The government prosecutor's office has filed a case acquitting former vice president of the Airline Operators Association Rajendra Bahadur Singh, who was recommended by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police to be prosecuted for organized crime, claiming bribery. Out of the 33 people recommended by the police to be made defendants, only 32 people, except Singh, have been prosecuted in the Kathmandu District Court.
The police had submitted a 1,243-page report to the government prosecutor's office, concluding that the country's reputation was tarnished by organizing fake rescue flights and embezzling insurance money. The investigation officers are dissatisfied after the government prosecutor filed a case after taking a week to study the report and acquitting Singh.
The charge sheet filed in the court states that Singh was involved in the crime and did not receive any benefit from the investigation so far. The report submitted by the CIB, along with its opinion, also included an audio of a conversation between Shyamsundar Kandel, who was arrested during the investigation, and Singh, who is also the owner of Mountain Helicopter Pvt. Ltd., to influence the investigation into the fake rescue.
In the audio conversation between Kandel and Singh, the CIB instructed the Civil Aviation Authority not to include the word ‘rescue’ in the details sought by the CIB and to show all flights as chartered flights. ‘This clearly shows the intention to provide false data to the investigation or not to provide data at all,’ the CIB investigation report states.
Singh also said in the conversation that he had already spoken to the Director General of the Authority and that there was an agreement to answer that there was no ‘data’ on rescue,’ the report states. Singh was also a member of the Study and Suggestion Committee formed by the government to reform the civil aviation sector.
According to an officer involved in the investigation, Singh, who is also the former chairman of Mountain Helicopters, was found to have previously taught officers who were arrested to hide evidence in the fake rescue flight case. ‘We have sent the audio recording of him teaching how to hide evidence to the government attorney’s office,’ the officer said.
Although Singh was not prosecuted, Sandeep Bhandari, assistant manager of the sales and marketing department of Mountain Helicopter Pvt. Ltd., which he operates, has been made a defendant. The charge sheet filed in the court alleges that Bhandari forged passenger and cargo manifests to show that he had rescued foreign tourists who had come to Kathmandu via chartered flights. “It has been seen that the documents were forged and provided to Vivek Pandey of Mountain Rescue Service Pvt. Ltd.,” the charge sheet states.
As mentioned in the charge sheet filed based on the police investigation, three helicopter companies, three hospitals, more than a dozen trekking companies, insurance agencies and trekking guides have been found to have colluded in the rescue flights of foreign mountaineers and trekkers in order to collect insurance money. The helicopter companies involved in rescuing tourists with minor problems include Mountain Heli, Manang Air (now Basecap) and Altitude Air.
A case has also been filed against Altitude Air Station Manager Pasang Dawa Tamang, Prakash Babu Dahal, a junior marketing staffer at Manang Air (now Basecap), Chandra Prasad Pyakurel alias Sudeep, Marketing Manager at Altitude Air Pvt. Ltd., and Sandeep Bhandari, Assistant Manager of Sales and Marketing Department at Mountain Helicopter Pvt. Ltd.
In the case of providing fake treatment to patients, Swakon International Hospital's operators Dr. Minalma Pandey, Dr. Shyamsundar Kandel, Shriram KC, Siddhi International Hospital's operator Dr. Girwan Raj Timilsina, former director of Era International Hospital Ganesh Silwal, operator of Era International Hospital Jeevan Pandey, Bhanu Dhakal, Phurba Tshiring Sherpa, Mamita Bhatta, Chungla Bhutia Sherpa have also been made defendants.
Police arrested Everest Experience and Assistant Pvt. Ltd. Chairman Muktiram Pandey, shareholder Subash KC, Manager of Mountain Rescue Service Vivek Pandey, Chairman of the same rescue company and shareholder of Swakon Hospital Jayaram Rimal, Chairman of Nepal Chartered Service Pvt. Ltd. Rabindra Adhikari, operator of Siddhi Hospital Timilsina. Royal Holidays Adventure Pvt. Ltd. operator Sandeep Tiwari, Panorama Himalayan Trekking and Expedition Pvt. Ltd. shareholder Pasang Sherpa and Nepal Chartered Service Pvt. Ltd. Vivek Thapaliya were also arrested in this case. Others have been declared absconding defendants.
Others who have been declared absconding defendants include Sandeep Dhungana, owner of Himalaya Masters Adventure and Travel Company, Shantakumar Baniya, director of Magic Himalaya Trucks and Expeditions and director of Heli on Call Pvt. Ltd., Binod Sapkota, operations head and executive director of Nepal Truck Adventure and Expeditions, and Tenzing Sherpa, guide of Himalaya Trekking and Expeditions Pvt. Ltd.
Badri Lamsal, owner of Spiritual Excursion Pvt. Ltd., Kabindra Lamsal, owner of Nepal Hiking Adventure Company Pvt. Ltd., Bishnu Prasad Lamsal, owner of Nepal Hiking Adventure Company Pvt. Ltd., Kumar Bhandari, owner of Nepal Rescue and Assistance Pvt. Ltd., Santosh Adhikari alias Khomraj Adhikari, former shareholder of Nepal Chartered Service Pvt. Ltd. and owner of Flying Yak Kathmandu, and Ram Kumar Phuyal, owner of Worldmed Assistance Nepal Pvt. Ltd. have also been charged.
District Court Information Officer Deepak Kumar Shrestha informed that a case has been registered against 32 people on charges of committing crimes against the state and organized crime. He said, “Nine of the defendants have been arrested, and the others have been registered as absconding defendants.”
The police had also found details of a conversation in which the hikers rescued by Heli On Call Pvt. Ltd. were ‘enjoying chilled beer.’ The police claim that the details written by rescuer Shanta Baniya also confirmed the fact that the rescue and treatment were false. Details of a message sent to the hospital’s doctor Timilsina asking to give the trekking company the commission it was due were also found during the investigation. ‘It seems that different bills were prepared to show that patients who arrived on the same flight were rescued,’ says an investigation officer of the bureau. ‘It seems that criminal benefits were obtained by inflating the amount of money in such documents.’
Ashok Adhikari, the owner of Basecap Trip Pvt. Ltd., which the police had obtained the documents from, has presented an example of how hospital documents were forged. According to the details he gave in the charge sheet, a tourist named Chandrawati was rescued from Tilicho Base Camp by Heli Everest and brought to Kathmandu. Since she was taken directly to IRA International Hospital, the officer said that she could not be treated there and had to be taken elsewhere. ‘But the doctor had assured me that she would be treated there, later the hospital took her to Grande City Hospital in Jamal for treatment during the day and brought her to IRA International Hospital at night,’ says the officer. ‘Later, the actual cost of her treatment was increased to $3,945.’
The CIB has also found a 'screenshot' of the amount given to him as a commission by Nepal Chartered Services Pvt. Ltd. Chairman Rabindra Adhikari. It has also been found that he sent a message to him asking him to find a person on Everest.
After news about the fake rescue flight appeared in Nepali and foreign media, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation formed an investigation committee led by Joint Secretary Ghanashyam Upadhyay in 2075 BS. The committee had then submitted a report recommending that the Home Ministry investigate the incident and take necessary action against the perpetrators of organized crime and fraud. Although that suggestion reached the police through the Home Ministry, the investigation could not proceed. Six years later, the police had started an investigation into the fake rescue flights of mountaineers and tourists who had gone on treks.
During that period, 171 out of 1,248 tourists rescued by Mountain Rescue Service Pvt. Ltd., 75 out of 471 by Nepal Chartered Service, and 71 out of 601 by Everest Experience were found to have been rescued suspiciously during the CIB's initial investigation. 'It appears that this crime was committed by submitting details of rescues from another place after obtaining permission for one area, forging documents, rescuing two/three people at once and preparing different rescue bills,' said CIB Chief AIG Manoj KC. 'We have also received emails from insurance companies raising questions.'
The Upadhyay-led committee report revealed that tourists were deliberately made sick by adulterating food and then being rescued and brought to Kathmandu. It also mentioned that they were then admitted to hospitals and claimed insurance money in an organized manner, and that many tourists were brought on the same flight and different bills were issued in the names of different people.
