KATHMANDU, Nepal — Prosecutors filed a case in a Nepal court on Wednesday against 30 people, including a former deputy prime minister, a former home minister and a prominent rights activist, for allegedly taking money from Nepalese citizens in exchange for promises to provide fake documents identifying them as Bhutanese refugees eligible for relocation overseas.
The case has shaken Nepal's political world because the arrested politicians belong to both the governing coalition and the opposition.
Prosecutors filed the case at Kathmandu District Court after weeks of investigation.
It was unclear whether anyone has gone abroad using the fake refugee documents.
The defendants include former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand. They also include Tek Nath Rizal, who campaigned for the rights of minority ethnic Nepalis in Bhutan and was jailed for years by the Bhutanese government and later exiled to Nepal.
Sixteen of the defendants have been arrested and police are searching for the others.
More than 100,000 ethnic Nepalis — a Hindu minority in Bhutan for centuries — were forced to leave the country in the 1990s and lived as refugees in eastern Nepal until most were resettled in Western countries.
Many of those resettled went to the United States, which is a dream destination for many Nepalese who hope to migrate for better education and employment opportunities.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
