Former Deputy Prime Minister and CPN-UML leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi was released from Dillibazar Prison on Thursday morning after the Kathmandu District Court reduced his sentence in the fake Bhutanese refugee case from four years to three.
He was handed over to his wife and other family members after leaving the prison. The release is not an acquittal or a pardon. His conviction stands, and the financial orders against him remain in force.
Why he was released
Section 12 of the Senior Citizens Act, 2063 lets courts reduce prison terms for senior citizens serving sentences in government cases. The maximum reduction is 25% for those aged 65 to under 70, 50% for 70 to under 75, and 75 % for 75 and above. The reduction is discretionary, and the court weighs age and the nature of the offence. Twenty-five percent of 48 months is 12 months, leaving 36.
The court issued its reduction order on Oct 30 and scheduled his release for Nov 12. It also credited time he had already spent in custody against the additional imprisonment set in lieu of an unpaid fine. Dillibazar Prison released him after receiving the revised prison warrant.
What he still owes
The sentence came with a Rs 40,000 fine and an order to repay victims Rs 4 million. Rs 1,600 Victim Relief Fund contribution is also a condition of release.
The conviction
On July 7, the Kathmandu District Court convicted Rayamajhi of fraud, organised crime and offences against the state. He was sentenced on July 14. He was not convicted of forgery. The three people convicted of forging the official records were Tek Nath Rizal, Keshav Prasad Dulal and Sanu Bhandari.
In a statement to the District Government Attorney’s Office in May 2023, he denied sending non-Bhutanese citizens to the United States under false refugee identities. He said he went out of contact after his son was arrested, fearing he would be handcuffed, and that he intended to surrender. He acknowledged knowing Dulal and Bhandari and said he travelled with them to Gosaikunda by helicopter.
How the scam worked
More than 100,000 ethnic Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa people fled Bhutan from the late 1980s and lived for years in camps in Jhapa and Morang. A third-country resettlement programme began in 2007 and wound down around 2016.
In 2019, the government formed a task force on remaining Bhutanese refugees. It recommended registering 429 people and rejected further applications from the remaining 581 families. According to the court’s full verdict, a forged version of the report added two schedules, annexes 9(a) and 9(b), making 875 people from those families appear eligible.
Brokers demanded money, often in instalments, from Nepalis who wanted to reach the United States, and promised registration as refugees. Some victims were taken to mock interviews and given fake identities. One case in the verdict involved Tejina Lamsal of Dang, who paid an advance of Rs 500,000, was fingerprinted and given the identity of Sharada Chaulagain. She never left.
From arrest to verdict
Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against Rayamajhi and his son, Sandeep, on May 3, 2023. He became unreachable the next day, and the CPN-UML Central Secretariat suspended him as party secretary on May 10 and told him to surrender. Police arrested him on May 14 in Pasikot, Budhanilkantha. A charge sheet against 30 people was filed on May 24, 2023, and supplementary ones followed in 2024. The case was delayed, including by the September 2025 arson attack on the court.
The court acquitted seven defendants: Sandeep Rayamajhi, Ram Sharan KC, Tanka Kumar Gurung, Pratik Thapa, Laxmi Maharjan, Keshav Tuladhar and Ashish Budhathoki. Cases against eight fugitives were held in abeyance until their arrest.
Others convicted include former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, sentenced to two years and a Rs 20,000 fine, and former Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, Dulal, Bhandari, Indrajit Rai, Sandesh Sharma, former lawmaker Ang Tawa Sherpa and Sagar Rai, each sentenced to four years and Rs 40,000.
Money and victims
The court ordered eight defendants to return a combined Rs 153.797 million to 59 victims. Sandesh Sharma was ordered to pay Rs 74.7 million, Bhandari Rs 26 million, Dulal Rs 15.8 million, Indrajit Rai Rs 15 million, Sagar Rai Rs 12.9 million, Rayamajhi Rs 4 million, Ang Tawa Sherpa Rs 2.7 million and Govinda Kumar Chaudhary Rs 2.5 million. The court rejected compensation claims from 53 of the 112 people identified as police complainants. Forty-three of them had not submitted sufficient statements on their losses or appeared to testify.
The court found that a forged version of the government report existed.
His career
Rayamajhi is from Arghakhanchi and has won Arghakhanchi-1 repeatedly, including the Constituent Assembly in 2008 and 2013 and the House of Representatives in 2017 and 2022. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister from October 2015 in KP Sharma Oli’s first government, representing the Maoist party. He returned as Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister from December 2020 to May 2021. He was elected UML secretary in November 2021.
What he did after release
He was welcomed at his residence, visited Chhinnamasta temple and planned to spend a few days in Kathmandu before returning to Arghakhanchi. People close to him said he plans to appeal. He can challenge the verdict or sentence before the Patan High Court, and the sentence reduction does not prevent that.
What is next
The CPN-UML has not decided whether to give him a role. Niraj Acharya, head of its Publicity and Publication Department, said the leadership would hold discussions and talk about assigning him an appropriate responsibility.
