A case has been filed against the Director General of the Passport Department, Tirtha Raj Aryal, the Department's Information Technology Director, Sunil Kumar KC, and the then Accounts Officer of the Department, Tulsi Prasad Acharya, among others.
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The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against 18 people, including Director General of the Passport Department, Tirtha Raj Aryal. The commission filed a corruption case in the special court on Monday alleging irregularities in the passport purchase contract. According to Special Court Information Officer Parbati Hitan, a case has been filed against 18 people, including Aryal. The case has been filed against Director General of the Passport Department, Aryal, the department's Information Technology Director Sunil Kumar KC, and the department's then Accounts Officer Tulsi Prasad Acharya, among others. The case has been filed against the commission's 10 employees, 2 foreign companies printing passports, 4 foreign representatives of those companies, and 2 Nepali representatives as defendants, Hitan said. On June 6, 2025, the Passport Department awarded the e-passport contract to two German security printing companies, Veridos GmbH and Muehlbauer. This company was responsible for the registration system, data management, passport booklet production, personal details printing, quality control and packaging. A complaint was filed with the authority immediately after the agreement.
Director General of the Passport Department Aryal, then Accounts Officer Tulsi Prasad Acharya and Nepali representative of the German company Manindra Malla have also been arrested for alleged irregularities in passport printing.
According to the contract agreement signed in June last year, the German companies were to supply the first batch of passports within 240 days. The German companies were to complete data migration, establishment of personalization centers in all 77 districts and Nepali missions abroad and supply and distribute passports by the end of December. The contract with the French company IDEMIA, which had previously won the contract, was valid only until December.
After the contract of IDEMIA, which has been providing biometric passports to Nepal since November 2021, ended in December, it was decided that the German companies would start supplying only after March. IDEMIA had also filed a complaint with the Prime Minister's Office regarding the contract given to the German companies. The Prime Minister's Office had started showing interest about two months ago in the progress made in the supply of passports and the status of the passport stock.
Correction of error:
Earlier, the news reported that 'Corruption case filed against 18 including former Foreign Minister Arju Rana' has been corrected with an apology. -Editor
