Kathmandu [Nepal], July 15 – A court in Nepal has sentenced two former government ministers and 14 others for their roles in a scheme that forged documents to present Nepali nationals as Bhutanese refugees for resettlement in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday sentenced former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi to four years in prison after finding him guilty of offences against the state, fraud and involvement in organised crime, according to a court document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand was sentenced to two years in prison as an accomplice in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rayamajhi, who is in custody and Khand who is out on bail, were not immediately available for comment. Both have previously denied any involvement in the scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rayamajhi’s lawyer, Dharma Raj Regmi, said his client “was never involved in policy making for the refugees” and would appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khand’s lawyer, Pankaj Karna, also said he would challenge the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court also sentenced 14 others, including a former senior Home Ministry bureaucrat and a former Bhutanese refugee leader, to prison terms of up to four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not immediately clear whether any Nepali nationals were ultimately resettled in the United States using forged documents. The alleged scam came to light in 2023, after both former ministers had left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 120,000 Bhutanese nationals of Nepali origin fled Bhutan to Nepal beginning in the early 1990s, seeking greater political freedom. After Nepal and Bhutan failed to agree on their repatriation, nearly 113,000 refugees were resettled in third countries including the United States, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States has accepted about 100,000 Bhutanese refugees from Nepal under the resettlement programme. Several thousand refugees remain in camps in eastern Nepal, saying they wish to return to Bhutan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The verdict comes after anti-corruption protests in Nepal last year that led to the collapse of the previous government. A new Gen Z-backed administration led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, elected in March has pledged to pursue corruption cases linked to past governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu [Nepal], July 15 – A court in Nepal has sentenced two former government ministers and 14 others for their roles in a scheme that forged documents to present Nepali nationals as Bhutanese refugees for resettlement in the United States. The Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday sentenced former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-nepal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n