Five Nepali teachers, who were arrested from the bordering Indian town of Nautanawa in Uttar Pradesh for possessing fake Indian notes, have been languishing in prison for the last one month.

The teachers were caught with fake currency at Sunauli-Bhairahawa border on their return from a weeklong educational and pilgrimage trip to Delhi and Agra on April 11. They stopped over at the town to buy gifts for their family. The teachers of Chitwan’s Dibya municipality-based Yuba Secondary School have been identified as Jeevakhar Dhakal, Ambika Prasad Ghimire, Krishna Chandra Sapkota, Achyut Ghimire (administrative staff) and Shiva Bhakta Pandit. Apart from the five, the rest of the 28-member travelling team have already returned home in Chitwan.

According to South Asian University Professor Yubaraj Pokharel, who is also a relative of one of those arrested, the five teachers have been taken to Allahbad High Court from Nautanawa police post via Maharajgunj District Court. He said they were caught with fake IC notes worth Rs4000, which they changed with a local agent, and the police took ahead the legal proceedings based on the same.

Pokharel, who learnt about the incident recently, said he had informed the Nepali embassy in Delhi.

An investigation by Nepal Police suggests the teachers had exchanged the IC notes from Arati Chaudhary of Chitwan, and Bharat Shrestha and Ram Prasad Shrestha of Kathmandu, before setting off on the trip on April 5. Following the arrests of two of the three money changers, the Foreign Ministry has requested the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu for the release of the teachers from prison, said Pokharel.