Following a tip-off, Nepalese police arrested two persons in Jhapa on the charge of selling fake Bhutanese citizenship to non-Bhutanese.
The Area Police Office, Kakadbhitta arrested ‘U’ Wangchuck and ‘K’ Dorjee three days ago with 30 fake copies of Bhutanese citizenship, reports the Kathmandu Post, Tuesday. The Bhutan News Service has withheld initials of their names on security grounds.
Police believe that there is a large network of people running the fake citizenship racket, particularly active in Sikkim, Darjeeling, Manipur and Shillong, in India.
The racket has reportedly taken off with the third country resettlement scheme for Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal.
A confidential source informed BNS that some of the district officials at the Refugee Coordination Unit have also been involved in the racket. However, the claim couldn’t be verified independently.
Police also claimed that such activities have increased as initial registration process of remaining asylum seekers from Bhutan has been underway in Jhapa since a month.
