KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu district court found most of the defendants guilty in Nepal’s high-profile fake Bhutanese refugee scam, three years after prosecutors filed charges in one of the country’s biggest corruption cases involving former ministers, senior bureaucrats and alleged brokers.

The bench of Judge Tej Bahadur Khadka of the Kathmandu District Court convicted the defendants and ordered a separate hearing to determine sentencing. The court has yet to release the full text of its verdict.

The Kathmandu District Government Attorney’s Office filed charges on May 24, 2023, against 30 defendants, including former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey and former home ministry security adviser Indrajit Rai. They face charges including fraud, forgery, organised crime and crimes against the state.

Two supplementary indictments were later filed after investigators identified additional suspects. Several defendants remain in custody, while others were released on bail following rulings by the Kathmandu District Court, the Patan High Court and the Supreme Court.

The case centres on an alleged criminal network accused of collecting millions of rupees from hundreds of Nepalis by falsely promising to send them to the United States as Bhutanese refugees under a non-existent third-country resettlement programme.

Prosecutors say the network forged government documents, manipulated official records and inserted fake names into reports prepared by a government task force on Bhutanese refugees. Investigators allege the operation exploited a long-running government process dealing with the remaining Bhutanese refugees living in camps in eastern Nepal.

The scandal began to unravel in March 2023 after police arrested alleged mastermind Keshab Prasad Dulal and other suspects. Investigators subsequently expanded the probe, drawing in politicians, senior civil servants, security officials and middlemen, making it one of Nepal’s most politically sensitive criminal investigations in recent years.

Proceedings were delayed by legal challenges, supplementary investigations and a fire that damaged court and prosecution records in September 2025.