Nepal court jails ex-deputy PM, home minister in fake refugee scam; 14 others convicted
Nepal's Kathmandu district court sentenced former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi to four years in prison for fraud, crimes against the state, and involvement in organized crime in a fake refugee document scam.
Former home minister Bal Krishna Khand received a two-year sentence as an accomplice in the scam, which involved creating fake documents to present Nepali citizens as Bhutanese refugees for US resettlement.
Fourteen others were convicted and sentenced to up to four years, including a former senior home ministry official and a former Bhutanese refugee leader.
The investigation began in 2023 after authorities uncovered claims of Nepali citizens falsely posing as Bhutanese refugees to access a US-led resettlement program.
The case is linked to the Bhutanese refugee crisis, during which nearly 113,000 refugees were resettled in the US, Canada, and Australia.
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