16 individuals and 2 companies are defendants, with a claim of Rs 10.13 billion, and a separate investigation is being conducted against former Foreign Minister Arju Rana.
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A corruption case has been filed against 18 people, including Director General of the Passport Department, Tirtha Raj Aryal, on charges of irregularities in a passport purchase contract.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a case in a special court on Monday against 18 people, including Director General Aryal, 10 employees, 2 German companies that received the passport printing contract, 4 directors of the company, and 2 people working as its Nepalese representatives.
CIAA spokesperson Suresh Neupane said that a fine of Rs 10.13 billion, 461,477 crore has been imposed against the defendants in the case and a demand has been made to recover the amount of fine, imprisonment and embezzlement.
According to the charge sheet, the department's Director General Aryal, Director (Information Technology) Sunil Kumar KC, then Director Shatrudhan Prasad Sharma Pokharel, then Director Rabindra Rajbhandari, then Accounts Officer Tulsi Prasad Acharya, Computer Engineer Bipin Prasai, then Branch Officer Somesh Thapa, then Under-Secretary (Law) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rajaram Dahal, then Under-Secretary (Accounts) Bhesh Prasad Bhurtel, then Under-Secretary (Law) Pushkar Raj Nepal have been demanded to pay a lump sum fine and imprisonment.
They were involved in the contract process from the beginning. The charge sheet filed in the court states that they were involved in the decision-making process in bad faith by participating in the procurement committee, financial evaluation committee, technical committee and the phased process of the contract agreement. Apart from the amount, the Authority is also demanding the recovery of Rs 184.488 crores paid after the contract agreement.
The charge sheet filed by the CIAA states that additional punishment has been demanded against Aryal for committing an offense as the head of the office. Similarly, the contractor companies Veridos GmbH and Muehlbauer and representatives of both companies have also been made defendants.
A compensation of Rs 1.9 billion 69 million 57 thousand 32 has been demanded against the contractor company Muehlbauer and its chief Gerard Maurer, Pavel Rikis and its Nepal agent Manindraraj Malla. In this case, they have been made defendants for acting as accomplices with the main accused.
Another contractor company Veridos GmbH and its chief Fabiola Bellersheim, Florian Paquilin and Siddhartha Thapa, who worked as the Nepal agent, have been fined Rs 8.22 billion 35 million 4 thousand 4444 and fined and imprisoned accordingly.
The CIAA has stated that they have also been punished accordingly for working as the main accused. It has been demanded to recover the Rs 184.488 crore paid after getting the contract from the directors and agents of this company.
The CIAA had taken into custody on 1 Ashar, Director General of the Passport Department Aryal, the department's Information Technology Director KC, and Nepal representative of one of the two contractor companies, Muehlbauer Malla, from the Prime Minister's Office. Before taking Director General Aryal into custody, Prime Minister Balendra Shah's advisor and personal secretariat staff had summoned CIAA Chief Commissioner Prem Kumar Rai and other commission officials to Singha Durbar and pressured them to investigate the passport irregularities case expeditiously.
After that, the CIAA, which conducted a rapid investigation, filed a corruption case against 16 individuals and 2 companies on Monday. Former Foreign Minister Arju Rana Deuba was also dragged into the investigation in the procurement case. For that purpose, the CIAA had gone to the house burned down during the Gen-G movement in Budhanilkantha and pasted a three-day notice in Arju's name, asking her to appear in the statement. However, she had sent the CIAA information via email that she could not appear as she was abroad undergoing treatment. The CIAA has not made her a defendant in the case filed in court on Monday. According to an CIAA officer involved in the investigation, a separate investigation has been initiated against her.
'During the investigation into the complaint received regarding serious irregularities and corruption from the initial stage of the bidding, it was found that the civil servant officials/employees and representatives of supplier companies Muehlbauer ID Services and Veridos, in collusion, planning and involvement, with the intention of causing illegal gains for themselves and illegal losses to the Government of Nepal/public institution Passport Department, changed the terms and criteria of the bidding in a manner that was contrary to the prevailing laws including the Public Procurement Act,' the CIAA charge sheet states.
The indictment states, ‘It has been confirmed that the tender evaluation was carried out in bad faith in a manner that was contrary to the approved terms and conditions, and the technical and financial evaluation of the tenders was carried out in violation of the prevailing laws, and wrong recommendations and wrong decisions were made, and agreements were made with the said tendering companies, and even partial payments were made, thereby causing illegal benefits to public servants and supplier companies and a loss of Rs 10.13 billion 461 thousand 477 to the Government of Nepal/Public Institution Passport Department.’
The Passport Department had awarded the contract for the purchase of e-passports to two German security printing companies, Veridos GmbH and Mühlbauer, on June 6, 2025. A complaint was filed with the Authority on behalf of another competing company for the contract for the registration system, data management, passport booklet production, personal details printing, quality control and packaging.
While investigating the same complaint, the Authority stated that after a detailed investigation was conducted, a case was filed against 18 in the first phase after it was found that the contract was awarded in violation of the provisions of public procurement and that the work was not done as per the contract. An investigation officer informed that a supplementary investigation is ongoing.
At that time, UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli was the Prime Minister and Rana was the Foreign Minister. According to the contract agreement, the first batch of passports had to be supplied within 240 days. The German companies had to complete the work of data migration, setting up personalization centers in all 77 districts and Nepali missions abroad, and supply and distribution by the end of December. Before that, the contract agreement of the French company IDEMIA, which had been awarded the passport contract, was until December 2025, after which a new contract was called and the German company was selected. The German company had been responsible for the supply since March 2026. However, the Authority had initiated an investigation into this after the work was not done on time.
After the contract of IDEMIA, which has been providing biometric passports to Nepal since November 2021, ended in December, the German 2 companies were scheduled to start supplies after March 2026 as per the contract agreement, but the work was not done as per the contract. 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 in the progress made in passport supply and the status of passport stock about two months ago.
Even though the old contract with the French company ended and a new contract was signed, the government became ruthless against it as there were problems in issuing passports. There was controversy in this contract from the beginning.
After losing the tender, IDEMIA had filed a complaint with the Prime Minister's Office. Later, on July 23, 2025, it filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court alleging irregularities in the procurement process of the Passport Department. These included violations in the assessment of technical requirements, incorrect calculation of foreign exchange rates, and neglect of qualified bidders. The Supreme Court had refused to issue an interim order.
The writ petition, filed seeking to quash the decision to award the contract to the German company and review the bidding process, was last heard in the Supreme Court on 23 Jestha 2083, and an order was issued to schedule a presentation within Asad and send it for a full hearing. Meanwhile, the Authority filed the case in the court before the Supreme Court could hear it.
