Nepal Police have arrested a group of five racketeers who provide all necessary services and forge documents to help Tibetans refugees obtain real Nepali citizenship certificates through the District Administration Offices.
The arrested have been identified as Krishna Bahadur Katwal, 47, of Jhapa, Nyulkesh Shrestha, 70, of Kathmandu, Hiralal Shiwakoti,Kathmandu, Hira 49, of Morang, Lopsang Thinley, 35, of Tanahun, and Bijaya Lama, 30, of Lalitpur.
Police have identified 10 Tibetans who gained Nepali citizenship by providing fake information and forged documents.
Policehave also held citizenship of 25 suspicious persons who have some link with the racketeers to investigate the authenticity of their nationality.
Police, in their preliminary investigation, revealed that the mastermind of the racket, Katwal, might have provided Nepali citizens to over 500 foreigners, mostly Tibetans, over a period of five years.
Another person Thinley, who used to live at the Tibetan refugee camp here had recently acquired Nepali certificate from Kathmandu district on March 13. Thinley would find people who wanted Nepali citizen-ship and fix meetings with the racketeers.
Similarly, 70-year-old Shrestha used to present himself in the guise of the father of the foreigner who wished to get citizenship. It has been found that Shrestha had played the role of father for four Tibetans. Police said he would go to the CDO office and present himself as the father to government authorities to initiate necessary process. He would take Rs 10,000 from each person for doing so.
Another person Lama, had been working at a private canteen at the office of the District Administration Office, Kathmandu. He was responsible for managing all the documents to submit to the office and fix all kinds of prob-lems at the DAO. He would take Rs 150,000 from Bhetwal after completion of the task.
Police have identified five more persons in connection with the racket.
However, they are yet to be arrested.
Similarly, police have started investigating some officials of the DAO, Kathmandu in connection with the racket, but no one has been arrested so far.
The racketeers were arrested in Babarmahal area near the office of DAO, Kathmandu, where they would mostly run the racket.