By Our Reporter
Kathmandu District Police Range has submitted the detailed police investigation report on fake Bhutanese refugee case to the District Government Attorney Office (DGAO), Kathmandu demanding that cases on treachery against the state, organised crime and cheating should be filed against 33 persons involved in the crime. However, the report is silent about a few high-profile leaders including Arzu Rana Deuba, wife of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority Prem Kumar Rai whose names were mentioned by the arrested individuals in their statements. Even IGP Basanta Kunwar has been linked with the case as reported by the media citing statements of a few accused.
According to the report submitted 58 days after the police investigation on fake Bhutanese refugee case began, the Government Attorney Office was to file the cases on Wednesday. Counting the first arrest day of the persons allegedly involved in the case on March 26, Kathmandu District Police Range on Monday submitted the report to the DGAO drafting the investigation report against 16 arrested persons, including former Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi of CPN-UML and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand. Additional 17 others have submitted reports as fugitives, said police.
Nepal Police has given the opinion that 33 persons, including former DPM Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Khand, who are allegedly involved in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, should be prosecuted under three crimes mainly crime against the state, fraud and organised crime, it is learnt.
Police have claimed that even though the investigation report of those who have been accused in the case has been submitted to the Attorney’s Office, the investigation of additional people will continue.
Although police have claimed that they won’t stop the investigation into the case and those who have been dragged to the case but were not arrested in lack of evidence could be investigated at any time, the public suspect the arrest of the high-profile leaders like Rana, and former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa.
This time police did not arrest or take statements of five powerful persons although the detained individuals mentioned their names in the involvement in the scam. They include Rana, Rai, Thapa, Manju Khand, wife of detained Bal Krishna Khand, and Rajesh Bajrachraya, the advisor to former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
It is widely believed that NC president Deuba and UML boss Oli and Prime Minister and Maoist chair Pushpakamal Dahal had reached a gentleman agreement to not arrest the above-mentioned leaders. Their frequent meetings after the arrest warrant against Top Bahadur Rayamajhi have made people suspect this. Otherwise, the two leaders who had been on bad terms should not have frequented Baluwatar in the name of holding meetings.
Again, if Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda dared to arrest them, the two (Deuba and Oli) could pull down his government and form their new government. Political protection and the influence of Deuba and Oli on the police administration could prevent the big fish from falling into the net of investigation.
However, no matter whether the above-mentioned individuals are arrested or not, they have become corrupt criminals in the eyes of the people. Even Deuba and Oli could not be clean because the crime had occurred when they were leading the government and one cannot believe that as PMs they were not informed about it when powerful home ministers and their aides were found directly involved in the case. And when Arzu had her upper hand in state affairs when Deuba was PM, people do not believe that Khand helped the criminals without having a clean signal from her.
The police have also given the opinion to send a written report to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for investigating the corruption issues of those who have held public positions before. Similarly, the police have also given an opinion to send a written report to the Department of Money Laundering Investigation for investigation in cases other than those holding public positions, said police.
Nepal Police has given their opinion that the case should be prosecuted against 33 persons involved in the case of fake refugees and has concluded that the District Government Attorney’s Office should seek Rs. 275 million as property equivalent to the loss in the case. Based on the 23 joint complaints filed by 113 victims, the police investigation report states that an amount equivalent to the amount needs to be sought or charge them.
Meanwhile, the DGAO has formed an eight-member team to study the investigation report on the fake Bhutanese refugee case.
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