Two more people have been arrested on charges of involvement in irregularities related to passport procurement. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) took Manindra Raj Malla, an agent of German company Muhrbauer, and Tulsi Prasad Acharya, the then accounting officer of the Passport Department, into custody on Wednesday. Earlier, the department's Director General Tirtha Raj Aryal and Director Sunil Kumar KC were arrested on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. 

The special court has allowed the CIAA to detain all four people for investigation. 'The accused who are at risk of destroying evidence and fleeing have been taken into custody,' said an official of the CIAA. 'The investigation and investigation is also ongoing against the then high-ranking officials of the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Home Affairs involved in the contract process.' 

The official informed that a detailed investigation is underway against more than 35 people on charges of involvement in passport procurement contract irregularities. He said that another Nepali agent of German company Veridos, Siddhartha Thapa, is absconding. 'The statements of more than 20 government officials and company associates involved in that contract have been recorded. "Four people are being taken into custody during the investigation and their statements are being recorded," he said.

During the initial investigation, the CIAA has claimed that there were irregularities worth around Rs 8 billion in the passport purchase contract. CIAA spokesperson Suresh Neupane, however, claimed that he did not know everything about those arrested during the interrogation and investigation. "Only the investigation officer knows who else was arrested for interrogation and investigation, what is being investigated," he said.

According to an official from the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the CIAA became active after Prime Minister Balendra Shah himself showed interest in the passport purchase irregularities. A complaint was registered with the Prime Minister's Office and the CIAA regarding the passport purchase contract made during the KP Sharma Oli-led government. The Prime Minister's Office had sent a team to the Passport Department to understand the details of the contract process and the passport stock. During that process, irregularities were found in the purchase contract and the passport stock was also low, the official from the Prime Minister's Secretariat said.

Prime Minister Shah had called CIAA Chief Commissioner Prem Kumar Rai to inquire about this matter. During that time, the CIAA became active after Prime Minister Shah expressed dissatisfaction that the process was not progressing. After that, the CIAA team questioned Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai about the passport purchase, according to the source. 

An official said that the Prime Minister's Office also spoke to German Ambassador to Nepal Udo Volz about this matter. The German government also has investment in the Veridos company, which has a large share in the passport supply contract. 

The official said that Ambassador Volz objected to the Prime Minister's Office calling him to the office and questioning him. 'The ambassador had told some European ambassadors about this incident,' the official said. 'He said that he was kept in the Prime Minister's Office for a long time and then the matter of this contract was discussed.' A high-ranking official in the Prime Minister's Office said that the office only objected to Ambassador Volz's lack of respect for the order of etiquette when he came directly without taking time.

Of the two German companies, Meridos took the contract for passport printing and Muhrbauer for biometrics. Earlier, a French company had been printing Nepali passports. On 23 Jestha 2082, the Passport Department signed an agreement with German security printing companies Veridos and Muhrbauer for the implementation of the e-passport system. 

According to the Passport Department, a contract agreement was signed with Veridos for 1.6 billion rupees and with Muhrbauer for 6.15 billion rupees. The German company was required to deliver the passports for the first time within 240 days of the agreement, but it was not implemented. When those companies failed to provide the passports within the specified time limit, the Sushila Karki-led interim government purchased 700,000 passports from a French company.

French company IN Smart Identity France SAS has been printing passports since 2021. A monitoring team from the Prime Minister's Office concluded that German companies were unable to print passports and transfer data. The department estimates that the current passport stock will last only for the next three weeks. 

‘The stock is dwindling as German companies are not ready to supply passports. We had already informed Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal, anticipating a passport crisis as the contract with the French company had already expired,’ said an official from the department. The German company has an agreement to provide 6.4 million passports within 5 years.