The Kathmandu District Court has convicted two former ministers along with 21 others in a high-profile fake Bhutanese refugee scam, finding them guilty of offences against the state, court officials confirmed on July 8, 2026.
Convicted Former Ministers and Officials
Former Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand were among those convicted. Others include former Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey and Keshab Prasad Dulal, a former aide to former Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala. The court also found refugee leader Tek Nath Rizal guilty. Additional convicts include Sanu Bhandari, Sagar Rai, Sandesh Sharma, Indrajeet Rai, Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, and Angtawa Sherpa. Narendra KC, Shamsher Miya, Haribhakta Maharjan, and Niranjan Kumar Kharel were convicted as accomplices.
Charges and Verdict Details
The police had formally registered a case against 30 people three years ago. According to court documents, the accused were involved in a scheme that falsely promised to send Nepali citizens to the United States by portraying them as Bhutanese refugees. On the charge of document forgery, only Tek Nath Rizal, Keshav Prasad Dulal, and Sanu Bhandari were found guilty, while all other defendants were acquitted on that count. The court also convicted Keshab Prasad Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Sagar Rai, Sandesh Sharma, Dr. Indrajeet Rai, Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, Angtawa Sherpa, Tek Narayan Pandey, and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi as principal offenders in the organised crime charge. The court is scheduled to determine the sentences at a subsequent hearing.
Background of the Scam
The District Public Prosecutor's Office in Kathmandu had initially filed a 224-page charge-sheet accusing the defendants of five types of charges, including fraud, organised crime, and crime against the state. A claim amount of 288.4 million Nepali rupees was also registered. The scam came to light in April 2023 after an investigative piece published through a grant from the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal. With mounting pressure, the incumbent Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha directed police to carry out an investigation. The scam unravelled after police apprehended Tek Narayan Pandey, then Secretary at the Vice President's Office and former Home Secretary. Data and documents retrieved from Pandey exposed how Nepalis were swindled out of millions of rupees in return for sending them to the US as Bhutanese refugees.
Victims and Financial Impact
Police investigation revealed that government officials helped racketeers obtain fake documents from the Home Ministry, which served as certification to send Nepali nationals as Bhutanese refugees to the USA. A total of 106 victims have registered complaints with the police, noting that fraudsters fleeced over Rs 232.5 million from them at different times. The group allegedly swindled over 875 people from different parts of Nepal, collecting between one and five million Nepali rupees per head.
Historical Context of Bhutanese Refugees
After 1990, Nepal witnessed a huge influx of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese nationals expelled from Bhutan in a massive ethnic cleansing drive. They were housed in refugee camps in Morang and Jhapa districts. After failed bilateral talks between Nepal and Bhutan, the international community, led by the UN refugee agency, began resettling refugees in third countries, mostly the US and Europe. Between 2007 and 2016, the UNHCR helped resettle more than 113,500 Bhutanese refugees in eight countries in one of the largest resettlement programs globally.
