The hearing of the fake Bhutanese refugee case is now set to continue. The case of extorting money from a Nepali citizen by pretending to be a Bhutanese refugee and sending him to the US has been pending in the Kathmandu District Court for three years. The bench of District Court Kathmandu Judge Tej Bahadur Khadka took the case for continuous hearing on Wednesday.

The court said that arguments have begun on behalf of some of the defendants in the Wednesday bench. Shiva Khatiwada, Information Officer of the Kathmandu District Court, said that the refugee case filed three years ago has entered continuous hearing and the Wednesday bench has kept it under review. The hearing in this case, which was scheduled for Wednesday, has been held under review.

A case was filed in the Kathmandu District Court on 10 Jestha 2080 against 30 people, including former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, then Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey and then Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa's security advisor Indrajit Rai, on charges of extorting a large sum of money from Nepali youth to send them to the US as fake Bhutanese refugees. Two other supplementary cases were also filed in the court in the same case. The bench of Judge Khadka began the continuous hearing on Wednesday by putting all these three cases together. After the filing of the case, the hearing began after three years, after 74 cases were filed in this case, including closed arguments and orders.

An organized gang, in order to tarnish Nepal's international image, had conspired to send Nepali citizens to the US as fake Bhutanese refugees by taking high-ranking officials in the state apparatus. For that, a large amount of money was collected from youths from Jhapa to Kanchanpur. After the matter was revealed, the investigation that was carried out revealed that people from the Deputy Prime Minister to middlemen were involved in it. The case was filed based on the evidence found in the arrested accused and the police investigation, and now the court is considering the case for regular hearing and disposal.

Santosh Katuwal, Attorney at the District Government Attorney's Office, Kathmandu, said that the case has finally gone to continuous hearing after three years. The last time the hearing of the case was affected due to the burning of the documents of the court and the government attorney's office on 24 Bhadra, Information Officer Khatiwada said that the case is moving towards disposal after the files were collected again.

In the investigation report of the District Police Complex, Kathmandu, the District Public Prosecutor's Office, Kathmandu, had filed a case against 30 people, including former Deputy Prime Minister and UML leader Rayamajhi, former Home Minister and Congress leader Khand, former MP Angtawa Sherpa, then Home Secretary Pandey, and then Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa's security advisor Rai, for four offenses.

During the investigation, 18 people were arrested and the District Public Prosecutor's Office, Kathmandu, filed a case and named Rayamajhi, Khand, then Secretary Pandey, then Home Minister's advisor Rai, as well as Bhutanese refugee leader Teknath Rijal, gang members Keshav Prasad Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Sagar Rai, Sandesh Sharma, former Minister Rayamajhi's son Sandeep Rayamajhi, and then Home Minister Khand's personal secretary Narendra KC as defendants. 

Similarly, Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, Ram Sharan KC, former MP Angtawa Sherpa, then chairman of the Haj Committee under the Ministry of Home Affairs Shamsher Miya and middleman Haribhakta Maharjan were also made defendants. On 1 Ashad 2080, a bench of District Judge Prem Prasad Neupane sent them to jail for remand. Among the defendants in the case, Tanka Gurung was released on a bail of 1 million rupees and Laxmi Maharjan on a bail of 500,000 rupees.

The next year, on 9 Baisakh 2081, a supplementary case was filed in the court against 5 people including gang member Keshav Dulal on the complaint of Dawafuri Sherpa. After the case reached the court, Pratik Thapa, son of one of the defendants, Ram Bahadur Thapa, was arrested on 14 Ashad 2081. He is also currently in jail during his remand.

During the investigation, another suspect in the refugee case, Bechan Jha, was arrested by the police from the Nepal-India border area of ​​Kanchanpur and brought to Kathmandu. An investigation was conducted and a case was filed against him in another supplementary prosecution court on 29 Shrawan 2081. Some of the accused who were made defendants in the original case are still absconding.

After the district court sent them to jail for remand, the defendants went to the Patan High Court in Shrawan 2080 against him. Hearing the case, on 15 Mangsir, the high court released Haribhakta Maharjan, Narendra KC, Sandeep Rayamajhi, Teknath Rijal and Ram Sharan KC, who were remanded in custody on the district court's order, on bail and released Tanka Gurung, Laxmi Maharjan, Ashish Budhathoki and Keshav Tuladhar on a regular date. After the high court's order, Rayamajhi was released on bail of 3 million rupees, Rijal, Maharjan and Ram Sharan KC on 15 million rupees each, and Narendra KC and Shamsher Miya on bail of 10 million rupees each.

After a difference of opinion between the two judges of the High Court, Janak Pandey and Prakash Kharel, on November 28, 2080, on whether to uphold the district court's order to remand another defendant, former Home Minister Khand, or release him on bail, a bench of Justice Krishnaram Koirala had ordered Khand to be released on a bail of Rs 3 million. The high court had upheld the district court's order to send the remaining defendants, including Rayamajhi, to remand.

When the district court was charged, it was stated that the Money Laundering Investigation Department should also investigate the defendants, and Khand, who was released, was produced before the Money Laundering Investigation Department by the high court's order and released on a bail of Rs 1.5 million.

Meanwhile, after the high court ordered to send the remaining defendants, including former Deputy Prime Minister Rayamajhi, the then Secretary Pandey, and the then Home Minister's advisor Rai, to remand, they had moved the Supreme Court against the high court's order. A bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Tek Prasad Dhungana, while hearing the case, had ordered on 13 Baisakh 2081 to keep Angtawa Sherpa and Govinda Chaudhary on bail and Miya on a regular date, and to send Rayamajhi, Pandey, Bhandari, Dulal, Sandesh, Indrajit and Sagar Rai to detention. They are currently in jail. Prateek, who was arrested after the case was filed in the court, and Jha, who was made a defendant in the supplementary prosecution, are also in jail.

Investigation revealed that an organized gang had taken over the machinery of the Ministry of Home Affairs under the pretext of managing the remaining number of Bhutanese citizens who had been displaced from Bhutan and had come to Nepal's Jhapa and Morang as refugees and settled in camps in third countries during resettlement. Under that, it was also revealed that the gang had taken over the machinery of the Home Ministry, including ministers, MPs, and employees, to send 429 Nepalis to the US in the first lot under the guise of refugees.

The government had formed a task force under the leadership of former Joint Secretary Bal Krishna Panthi to manage the genuine refugees in the camps in Jhapa and Morang who were yet to be resettled. The investigation revealed that the gang had forged the report of the same task force and was running the business. According to the police, the then Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey had delivered the report of the Panthi task force to the gang. After that, the gang tried to get the government to decide to send some of the people who had been recovered in the first lot to the US.