The District Court, Kathmandu aims to issue an order on whether to remand the defendants in Bhutanese refugee scam on June 14 after hearing arguments from the lawyers on both sides.

After taking statements from 18 accused in the scam so far, the court started debates from lawyers starting Sunday.

After the lawyers and the defendants conclude their arguments in the case, the court will decide whether to continue to keep the accused in custody, ask for bail or to release them on a normal date.

“District Court Judge Prem Prasad Neupane has announced a tentative date of issuing an order on whether to remand the defendants. It’s June 14,” Achyut Neupane, chief of the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office, told the Post. “The judge had told the lawyers representing both sides to conclude their arguments before that date.”

Starting from Sunday, the government lawyers have been arguing in favour of the prosecution of the accused. Nine government lawyers will put their arguments first and then the lawyers of the defendants will be allowed to register their arguments.

Representing the prosecutors, Mahesh Prasad Khatri presented his argument before the bench on Sunday. “It may take three days [until Tuesday] to conclude the arguments from our side,” said Achyut Neupane.

On May 24, the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office filed criminal cases at the District Court Kathmandu against 30 individuals including former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, accusing their involvement in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Of them, 18 have been arrested while the others continue to be at large.

On Friday, the District Court had recorded statements from former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, Bhutanese rights leader Tek Nath Rijal and Hari Bhakta Maharjan, an alleged racketeer, concluding the task of recording statements from the arrested defendants.

In the court, many defendants have given contradictory statements to what they had told the police. Rayamajhi and Khand said a conspiracy was hatched against them to destroy their political careers while rejecting the charges against them.

In his statement, Khand claimed that he neither had a part in the offence as mentioned in the charge-sheet nor instigated anybody to get involved in the offences. “All the charges against me are false,” he said.

According to the chargesheet, defendant Keshav Prasad Dulal had even provided a Rs12.45 million bribe to Khand. After the defendants—Sanu Bhandari and Keshav Prasad Dulal—were arrested, Khand had sent former Congress lawmaker Ang Tawa Sherpa to visit Bhandari and Dulal at the police station, offering to return the bribe money if they remained silent about his involvement.

In fact, Sherpa had also taken Rs10 million from Khand to return the bribe. Of the sum, Rs3 million was handed over to Raju Bhandari, elder brother of Sanu Bhandari. Bhandari gave a receipt to Ang Tawa after taking the money, according to the charge sheet.

But in his statement to the court, Khand denied having sent Ang Tawa to custody, offering to return the money. He claimed that he does not know another defendant, Dulal.

Khand also denied any knowledge of two different reports on Bhutanese refugees, with one listing Nepalis who were recognised as Bhutanese refugees.

Khand has also expressed anger at being chargesheeted for treason.

The charge sheet names former deputy prime minister Rayamajhi as the mastermind of the refugee scam. He allegedly played a key role in the disappearance of the actual report of the task force led by Balkrishna Panthi, a former joint-secretary, and replacing it with a fake one. Rayamajhi had even sought the help of another defendant, the Bhutanese refugee leader Tek Nath Rizal.

Rayamajhi had received Rs16 million in cash and Rs4 million through the banking channel from defendant Sanu Bhandari, according to the chargesheet.

In his statement to the court, Rayamajhi rejected having taken any money from Bhandari. He claimed that it was a conspiracy to tarnish his political image. Rayamajhi also claimed that he didn’t know any of those who registered complaints against him.

Even though he said that he had known the Bhutanese rights leader Tek Nath Rizal, he rejected Rizal’s claim that he was involved in the scam. Rayamajhi said he met Rizal only once and claimed that Rizal might have taken his name to hide his own crime.

Suspended secretary Pandey has also rejected the charge against him, saying that he was not involved in the offence as he was charged. He claimed that the statements he had given to the police were under duress.

Even though the chargesheet identifies him as the one playing a key role in creating fake documents, Pandey denied his hand in document forgery.

Defendant Keshav Prasad Dulal had told the police that he had paid Rs12.45 million to Pandey in cash while he was also found to have deposited Rs8.49 million in Pandey’s accounts at the Everest Bank, the Employees Provident Fund and the Citizen Investment Trust between November 2021 and June 2022. Pandey claimed to have contacted Dulal for the purpose of a tip-off but said he had no relations with either him, other defendants or those who registered complaints of the scam.

Asked about the millions of rupees deposited in these institutions, Pandey claimed before the court that he had used the money received selling land and shares, after the maturity of insurance schemes and the salary of his wife to repay the loans taken to build a house.

Legal experts say that their statements to the court run contrary to the police’s version, but they won’t save them as long as there is evidence to support the chargesheet.

“If the prosecutor has enough evidence to support the statements made by the defendants to the police, any statement given by the defendants contrary to their earlier statement makes no difference,” said Gauri Bahadur Karki, former chairperson of the Special Court. “If the defendants admit their crimes honestly and reveal the truth, the court has the right to reduce the penalty against them.”