Police have arrested a former municipal ward secretary of Saptari for his involvement in a case where an Indian man had obtained a Nepali citizenship through fake documents.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dhurba Kumar Shrestha on Tuesday said Raj Kumar Dev, the former ward secretary of Rajbiraj Municipality-1, was being investigated for his alleged role in providing Nepali citizenship to Satish Agrawal, a native of Hariyana, India.

Agrawal, who runs a business in Duhabi, Sunsari, was arrested two weeks earlier.Police are after two staff of Saptari District Administrative Office (DAO), Janak Koirala and Bhagwan Dahal, both on the run after the case revelation, DSP Shrestha said. The DAO records show that Agrawal had received a citizenship by descent on July 9, 1995. The document was signed by Durga Prasad Bhandari in capacity of assistant chief district officer.

DSP Shrestha said Bhandari was not the assistant chief district officer at the time of the citizenship issuance.

The DAO records also show on December 11, 2007, Agrawal had taken out a copy of his citizenship after losing the original one. The new copy of his citizenship certificate was signed by Koirala, the DAO administrative officer, at the recommendation of Kumar Dev, who is now in police custody.

The DAO had contacted the police to look into the matter after it received an application questioning the authenticity of Agrawal’s citizenship on March 7.