Five arrested for allegedly granting citizenships to non-Nepalis

Surunga, Sept 2 : Police arrested five persons, including non-gazetted staff of Jhapa District Administration Office Tejindra Neupane for allegedly granting Nepali citizenship to 16 non-Nepali residents on financial temptation.

Other arrested have been identified as Tek Bahadur Gurung, Lokraj Baral, Prem Raj Timilsina and Bhim Bahadur Limbu of Bhadrapur. Baral is the ward secretary of Birtamodh municipality-8.

Dinesh Raj Mainali, Superintendent of Police (SP) at District Police Office, Jhapa, informed that an investigation into the case was initiated by keeping them under bar at Jhapa district police.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs had already initiated investigation by suspending three employees including Administrative Officer of DAO Jhapa for granting Nepali citizenship certificates to non-Nepali residents.

The suspended employees of the FAO Jhapa are Administrative Officer Gaurav Dhungel, non-gazetted first class officer Meghraj Niraula and clerk Tejindra Neupane. The arrested are accused of providing citizenship certificates to non-Nepalis on setting.

It is noted that investigation is also being carried out over Bhadrapur municipality-9 ward chair Shani Lal Rajbamshi for furnishing recommendation to non-Nepali people. According to administration sources, citizenship certificates were granted to 16 non-Nepalis during the period from 2073 BS to 2076 BS.

It was found that parent’s name of nine out of 16 recipients was same while issuing the citizenship card. The Home Ministry has mandated the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) for further probing employees and citizenship certificates by suspending the employees involved in issuing fake certificates.

Tek Bahadur Gurung and Reena Gurung were found to have been mentioned as father and mother while issuing the citizenship card to nine people. The recipients were Nawang Sisap Gurung, Rigjen Chhoden Gurung, Dhonsel Gurung, Wangmo Gurung, Dolma Gurung, Pema Dolkar Gurung, Chhering Diki Gurung and Lobsan Gurung. Likewise, other recipients of the citizenship cards are Lakpa Sherpa, Sanjaya Agrawal, Ayub Alam, Jyoti Biswas Das and Nawang Decheng of Dhaijan-6, Jhapa, among others.