BIRGUNJ: In a major political and legal development, Rajesh Man Singh, the sitting mayor of Birgunj Metropolitan City—the sole metropolis and commercial gateway of Madhesh Province—has been arrested by police in Thori, Parsa.

His arrest follows a formal warrant issued by the Parsa District Court in connection with a high-profile document forgery and illegal citizenship case.

Mayor Singh was taken into custody in the border town of Thori.

The arrest marks a dramatic escalation in a legal saga that has been brewing for nearly two and a half years, carrying significant implications for the regional political landscape.

The case against Mayor Singh centers on allegations of document forgery concerning the citizenship acquisition process of a young woman named Rubina Shrestha.

The controversy initially erupted in late 2023 when a local resident, Liyakat Ali, lodged a formal complaint with the Parsa District Administration Office (DAO), which was later officially registered by the District Police Office in early 2024.

According to the complaint, a false birth registration certificate was issued from Ward No. 3 of Birgunj Metropolitan City on November 6, 2014.

This document was allegedly fabricated to project a false lineage, enabling Shrestha to obtain a Nepali citizenship certificate by descent from the Parsa DAO on July 29, 2018.

The legal focus quickly shifted from a simple local dispute to a serious offense against state documentation.

Under Chapter 25, Section 276 of Nepal’s National Penal Code 2017, the forgery of official government documents carries a severe penalty of up to seven years of imprisonment upon conviction.

As public scrutiny intensified in February 2024, the Ministry of Home Affairs formed an independent investigation committee led by Under Secretary Pushkar Rana to probe the allegations.

The investigation took an unexpected turn during official interrogations when Mayor Singh admitted that Rubina Shrestha was not a stranger, but his biological daughter.

Singh disclosed for the first time that Shrestha was born to his second wife, Rita Bhattarai—a marriage he had previously kept hidden from the public.

While Singh maintained that the biological relationship was genuine, the Home Ministry’s probe focused heavily on the institutional manipulations used to secure the citizenship.

The committee was tasked with investigating how the original citizenship files mysteriously vanished from the Parsa DAO and whether government staff acted improperly to facilitate the process.

Rajesh Man Singh is a seasoned political figure who began his career in 1986 as a student activist with the Nepal Students Union, the student wing of the Nepali Congress.

Over the decades, his career spanned various political forces, including the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, before he finally joined the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) under the leadership of Upendra Yadav.

After finishing third in the 2017 mayoral race, Singh achieved a resounding victory in the 2022 local elections.

Running as the common candidate for the then-ruling five-party coalition, he defeated the incumbent mayor, Bijay Kumar Sarawagi, by a massive margin of over 22,000 votes, cementing his position as a heavy hitter in Madhesh politics.

Under the National Criminal Procedure Code 2017, the police are required to present Mayor Singh before the Parsa District Court within 24 hours of his arrest.

The court will then determine whether to remand him to custody for further investigation or grant bail.