The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Thursday filed corruption charges against then Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) chief immigration officer Tirtha Raj Bhattarai and six other individuals, plus two companies, at the Special Court, while continuing its investigation against then-home minister Ramesh Lekhak for his alleged involvement in a visit-visa bribery racket.

In its charge sheet, the constitutional anti-graft body has accused Bhattarai of deliberately setting up a system to send Nepali travellers abroad on visit visas in return for bribes, during his tenure from October 9, 2024 to May 16, 2025.

Bhattarai, in collusion with then immigration officer Yagyaraj Aryal, chair of Greenline Holidays Pvt Ltd Balkrishna Khadka, managing director of Family Holidays Travels and Tours Deepak Bhandari, and Greenline Holidays’ director Ram Khadka were allegedly involved in allowing 257 people travel abroad under illegal visit visa arrangements.

Bhattarai’s relatives, Kabita Paudel and land trader Khem Prasad Subedi, have been named as accomplices (facilitators) in the case. Along with the seven individuals, Greenline Holidays and Family Holidays and Tours have also been named as defendants.

The commission has set Rs7.98 million each for recovery from Bhattarai, Paudel and Subedi. It has demanded Rs800,000 from Aryal, Rs1.06 million from Bhandari and Rs3.2 million each from Balkrishna and Ram.

Separate cases of money laundering have also been lodged against Bhattarai, Paudel and Subedi. The commission has demanded a recovery amount of Rs10.37 million from each of them. The Special Court will start hearing in the much talked about scam after writing to all defendants to be present in the court for recording statements.

The CIAA alleges that the accused operated a coordinated mechanism in which Khadka and Bhandari collected names of outbound travellers, logged them in diaries, and calculated bribe amounts using coded notations—Rs20,000 per male traveller and Rs40,000 per female traveller. “Clear to Balk” was used as a signal, according to the charge sheet.

The commission further states that Bhattarai received bribe money “in a restaurant bag presented as a parcel” and that he gave Rs800,000 to immigration officer Yagya Raj Aryal at his home as part of the bribe-sharing arrangement.

The CIAA also noted extensive communication between Bhattarai and his alleged collaborators: 858 phone calls with Kabita Paudel, 118 with Bal Krishna Khadka, 253 with Dipak Bhandari, and 53 with Khem Prasad Subedi.

The CIAA states that Bhattarai misused a mobile SIM registered for Paudel to exchange names of travellers, and that bribe money was routed through Paudel and Subedi for land purchases, constituting money-laundering. Paudel’s diary allegedly contains notations of repeated cash handovers to Subedi.

During the investigation, some travellers who had gone abroad on visit visas returned and testified to the CIAA that they had been “cheated, forced into a different work than promised, and subjected to mistreatment abroad”, requesting action against those involved.

A laptop seized from Bhattarai’s residence on May 21, 2025 was found to contain passport images of travellers. Digital forensics also confirmed that he had photographed and later deleted diary pages containing coded bribe records.

Without naming him directly, the chargesheet says investigations are ongoing against then-home minister Lekhak, among others. The commission has indicated that there may have been illegal financial transactions involving Lekhak, then home secretary Gokarna Mani Duwadi, Ram Chandra Tiwari, the head of the Security and Coordination Division at the home ministry. “The investigation is being conducted on suspicion that people were sent abroad on visit visas through malicious settings,” it says.

The chargesheet says that the administration division of the ministry, chiefs of different divisions, Lekhak’s personal secretary, personal aide, the home secretary’s secretariat, and other employees are also under investigation.

The commission states that 153,974 Nepalis flew through the Tribhuvan International Airport during Bhattarai’s tenure. Of them, 42,357, who went to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, have not returned.

“Investigations are ongoing to find out who sent them and what is their situation,” reads the charge sheet. The commission says it found that even working visa holders had left the country on visit visas and it was investigating in detail why they did so.

The constitutional antigraft body says that against the mandate that no Indian can fly to a third country via Nepal without the ‘No objection certificate’, several of them were allowed to go without the NOC. The commission is probing those who were involved in the illegal act.

Besides, a detailed investigation is being carried out to trace the officials who issued 149 passports with a single phone number of hotelier Lila Timilsina.