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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha has said all those accused and suspected in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam will be investigated. Receiving a memorandum from a delegation of the CPN-UML-aligned Youth Association Nepal today, the Deputy Prime Minister said that Nepali people are ashamed of the scam. "The scam has posed a challenge to a journey towards good governance, the precondition for prosperity," he said, adding that he has directed the Nepal Police to carry out and conclude investigations into the scam, unaffected by possible political pressure and unwanted influence. Thirty people, including the former Home Minister, now face charges of crime against the state over their alleged roles in the scam.  The case was registered by the Nepal Police on Wednesday. "A journey towards prosperity will remain obstructed until a nexus of corruption and commission is dismantled," the Deputy Prime Minister said. According to him, the government and police mechanism is clear about its stance against the scam and they are dealing with the matter with the determination to conclude it impartially and in a substantive way. "We want each guilty in the case to be prosecuted and no innocent be blamed for it." The Deputy Prime Minister ruled out the possibility of the protection of probable offenders on the basis of any political connection or nepotism and said that the police would bring those suspected in the case into investigation once it found evidence to suggest their involvements. Association Acting Chair Amit Lama demanded a fair investigation into the scam, urging the government not to divert the issue under any circumstances.  

Nepali Ambassador to India Shankar Prasad Sharma held a meeting with External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar on Thursday. During the meeting, the duo discussed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s upcoming visit to India, it has been learnt. Though the formal announcement of the visit is yet to be made, a source said that Prime Minister Dhal will leave for India on a three-day visit on May 31. A source at the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi said that Ambassador Sharma and Minister Jaishankar held a discussion to make Prime Minister Dahal’s India visit fruitful. Ambassador Sharma informed through Twitter that he held a meeting with External Affairs Minister of India Jaishankar. He said that they discussed making the ties between Nepal and India even stronger on the occasion.    

The District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday filed four different cases at the Kathmandu District Court against 30 individuals involved in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. The Attorney’s Office said that four different types of cases--fraud, organized crime, forgery and treason--were filed against them, demanding a jail term of 24 years. The Office has sought a fine of Rs 288.4 million from them. Police had submitted their investigation report on the fake Bhutanese refugee case to the District Attorney’s Office on Monday. Police had started the investigation from March 26. So far, police have arrested 16 individuals including former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand while 17 others including Pratik Thapa, son of former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and Niraj Rai, son of Indrajit Rai, who served as security advisor to Thapa, are on the run.    

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said the budget for the upcoming fiscal year would be allocated by keeping Karnali, Sudurpaschim and Madhes, the provinces which are backward in the Human Development Index (HDI), at the center. PM Dahal said this during a meeting with a delegation including Chief Minister of Sudurpaschim Province Kamal Bahadur Shah at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar today. The Prime Minister asserted that the development of all these three provinces would be kept in priority in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. On the occasion, the delegation briefed the Prime Minister about the overall economic situation of the province and the ongoing development and construction activities there, urging him to give special priority to the province in the appropriation of the budget. Prime Minister Dahal said some special provisions centering on Sudurpaschim Province have been made in the government's policies and programs and it would be kept in priority in the budget as well, according to Govinda Acharya, the PM's press advisor. The delegation also called attention of the Prime Minister on the reduction of the equalization grants to the province in the current fiscal year. The delegation also separately met with National Planning Commission (NPC) Vice-Chairman Min Bahadur Shrestha and Finance Minister Dr Prakash Saran Mahat on Tuesday.