CIAA arrests 35 from DoFE, Immigration

KATHMANDU, Aug 24: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has arrested altogether 35 government staff from the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) and the Department of Immigration on charges of faking documents to issue approval letters to those going for overseas work.



The CIAA said 17 officials from the DoFE and 18 others from the Department of Immigration were arrested on charges of being involved in fraudulently producing approval letters for 77 youths aspiring to go for abroad jobs.



According to the CIAA, the officials had produced documents recognizing false details provided by the foreign employment agencies by receiving illegal benefits from the agencies. "While fraudulently producing approval letters the government employees used computers to distort the facts, took the help of translators, forwarded false documents as genuine ones and passed them while issuing approval letters to 77 Nepali nationals leaving for foreign employment," said the statement issued by Shridhar Sapkota, spokesperson of the CIAA, on Friday. "They also kept the original documents secret and out of the office and they are yet to be traced." [break]



Those arrested staffers are section officers Nirmala Neupane, Manju Sharma Subedi, Ajita Sharma, Mukti Prasad Khanal, Ganga Bahadur Bhujel, Gyanendra Sharma and Pavitra Kuwar; computer officer Hiradhwaj Karki; assistant officials Shankar Karki, Ramesh Kumar Adhikari and Yogendra Kumar Adhikari; Kharidars Madhav Bhattarai and Keshav Banjara; language translator Raja Ullah, computer operators Santosh Subedi, Krishna Prasad Khatiwada and office assistant Yashoda Thapa Magar. All 17 are from DoFE.



Other arrested are section officers Bhoj Bahadur Aidi, Ram Chandra Karki, Nara Bahadur BK, Ram Krishna Parajuli, Dilli Ram Bhattarai, Diwakar Sharma, Gopi Prasad Paudel, Ram Chandra Khatiwada, Kamal Bahadur Karki, and Bikram Bahadur Somai; accounts officer Babuhari Panthi; assistants Ram Kumar Ojha, Jaya Bahadur Singh, Lilaraman Pokharel; and other staffers include Sanjay Nepal, Nawaraj Koirala, Rudra Prasad Marasini and Chiranjivi Adhikari. All 18 are employees at the Department of Immigration.



The CIAA has taken them into custody and is interrogating them.



Earlier the CIAA had arrested six other officials from the Department of Irrigation and six from DoFE including the department´s director Ramesh Mainali.



The anti-corruption body also arrested scores of officials from various government agencies such as Nepal Electricity Authority, Department of Land Reform and police, among others, for their alleged involvement in bribery and other fraudelent activities.

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