The CPN-UML has suspended Top Bahadur Rayamajhi from the position of party secretary.

Issuing a press release on Wednesday, the UML informed that a meeting of the party’s central secretariat committee decided to suspend the former deputy prime minister from the position of the party secretary until the accusations against him were brought to a proper conclusion.

“Keeping in mind the recent developments in the ongoing refugee scam, the party has decided to suspend Rayamajhi as the party secretary, until the case is brought to a proper closure, to help in the investigation into the matter,” reads the statement.

The secretariat meeting, held on Tuesday, also directed Rayamajhi to surrender to the authorities and cooperate with the state agencies in the investigation process.

Rayamajhi, who had attended a programme in Arghakhanchi last Thursday, has been absconding since the Kathmandu District Court issued an arrest warrant against him and his son.

Rayamajhi, who was supposed to return to the Capital via Bhairahawa, cancelled his flight ticket and has been contactless since.

Police had nabbed his son, Sandeep, from Rupendehi the same evening.

A senior Nepali Congress leader Bal Krishna Khand, who is also former home minister, was arrested from his residence on Wednesday.

A team of Kathmandu Police Circle arrested Khand from his residence in Mainjubahal for his alleged involvement in the scam where many Nepalis were swindled out of millions of rupees in return for sending them to the United States as Bhutanese refugees.

Likewise, the police also arrested Khand’s personal aide Narendra KC in connection with the scam.

Police have so far arrested 12 people, including the incumbent secretary at the vice-presedent’s office and former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who was appointed by Khand when he was leading the Home Ministry.

On Tuesday, two individuals Govinda Chaudhary of Siraha and Ram Sharan KC of Kathmandu were arrested from the Capital in connection with the case.

On June 14, 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Nepal Police had launched an investigation into a criminal group involved in a case of fraud. The group had allegedly been scamming people for years by promising to send them to the US as Bhutanese refugees.

The government action was in response to a case filed by the victims at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority against the group a few months earlier. The case was brought to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Division only in June 2022 after which the investigation was launched.

The group has allegedly swindled over 875 people from different places in Nepal of millions of rupees.

The police earlier arrested Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Sagar Thulung Rai, Tanka Gurung and Sandesh Sharma Pokhrel as suspected prime accused in the case. All of them had strong political connections.