Kathmandu: Former Minister Rayamajhi, Secretary Pandey, and nine others have been ordered to stay in custody for the case related to fake Bhutanese refugee resettlement, issued by the Kathmandu District Court on the 15th of Mangsir.

The order, issued in the fake Bhutanese refugee case, includes former Deputy Prime minister and Leader of CPN UML Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and eight others, issued by the Kathmandu District Court, has been made public.

The joint bench of judges Janak Pandey and Prakash Kharel, in coordination with Rayamajhi, recommended immediate Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, former Home Secretary Teknath Pandey, Keshav Dulal, Angtawa Sherpa, Sanu Bhandari, Sandesh Sharma, Govind Kumar Chaudhary, and Sagar Rai to be kept in custody, according to the order issued by the Kathmandu District Court.

The district court had made the order on the case on the 1st of Asar last year. Considering it unfair, the respondents had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to make the order a party to the regular hearing, and the regular hearing had been ongoing since last Tuesday. Although the hearing was held on Friday, the decision was only made on Saturday.

In the case of fake Bhutanese refugee resettlement, another bench of the court will decide whether to keep former Home Minister Balkrishna Khana in custody or release him on bail. This decision was made on Friday between justices Prakash Kharel and Janak Pandey of the High Court in Patan.

According to the decision given by the two justices, it has not been possible to reach a consensus on whether Balkrishna Khana should stay in custody or be released on bail. In this hearing section, a single Supreme Court bench will conduct further hearings, informed spokesperson Teertharaj Bhattarai.

According to him, Justice Janak Pandey had given the opinion to release Khana on bail with a bond of 3 million, while Justice Prakash Kharel had suggested keeping him in custody.