KATHMANDU, May 25: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has launched an internal investigation following former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Govinda Panthi’s disclosure that the investigation into the visit visa case was influenced.
According to a source at the MoHA, an internal probe has been initiated into the concerns raised by former DSP Panthi.
Through social media, Panthi stated that he was transferred while investigating corruption related to visit visas. He alleged that the investigation was affected due to pressure from the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and the then Inspector General of Nepal Police, Basanta Kunwar.
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Panthi also claimed that the investigation into the visit visa case would include the involvement of the then Prime Minister’s Secretariat team.
According to Panthi, if a high-powered judicial commission were formed to investigate irregularities in the immigration system, nearly all Home Ministers, Labor Ministers, and members of the Prime Minister's Secretariat team—except for a few—would be held legally accountable.
Panthi stated that on October 6, 2023, a batch of 1,641 passports accompanied by suspicious documents was submitted to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office. The preliminary investigation was initiated by a team from the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau. However, the case was later transferred to the Tribhuvan International Airport Security Office.
Initially, as the documents were sent to Pillar No. 3 and the investigation made little progress, Panthi’s team was assigned the case under the direction of Superintendent of Police (SSP) Somendra Singh Rathour.
He also revealed that the original 17-point guideline for visit visas was reduced to just 6 points during the tenure of then Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha. As a result, Nepali workers ended up stranded even in countries officially categorized by the government as high-risk destinations.
