By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, Dec. 27: Ward chairman Dhruba Bahadur KC of Baglung Municipality-4 including other officials are still at large for assisting and recommending a person to illegally obtain Nepali citizenship certificate.
Last year, District Court of Baglung had issued arrest warrants against KC and ward secretary Prem Bahadur Khadka for helping an individual to prepare fake documents and forging evidence of relations to acquire a Nepali citizenship. The person who was being helped is identified as Pankaj Sapkota, who the police during their investigation found presenting falsified information under the alias Ishwar Acharya.
A case against KC, including the then Assistant Chief District Officer of Baglung, Dhurba Giri, and two other employees with the DAO, Krishna Raj Gautam, Administrative Officer, and non-gazetted officer Bishnu Prasad Sharma, was filed in court for not checking the documents provided by Acharya.
Acharya, later identified as Pankaj Sapkota, is reportedly a permanent resident of Ward No. 6. After being taken into custody for presenting fake records for citizenship, Sapkota was later released on bail upon depositing Rs. 50,000 as bail amount.
In addition, the illegal means of obtaining Nepali citizenship by non-Nepalis goes unabated for years.
According to the police, this problem is more prevalent in Terai region of Nepal.
As per Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and spokesperson of Nepal Police Headquarters Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, especially in the border areas with India fake relatives and relationships are set up to get the Nepali citizenship. Police investigations have shown that many people who have obtained the Nepali citizenship illegally have been submitting forged documents, including educational certificates, recommendation letters from the local bodies. Some have taken fake citizenship with the connivance of government employees as well.

How fake citizenships are obtained
Ward Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Joshi of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City-12 was arrested in Kailali on October 29, 2019 on charge of presenting a fake father and recommending a person to obtain the citizenship. It is alleged that the Chairperson had recommended issuing Nepali citizenship to Indian citizens on the basis of descent.
According to the police, Joshi had presented Puniram Chaudhary of Himmatpur Camp in the district, on March 5, 2019, as a fake father to provide citizenship to Indian national Ilyas Ansari. In relation to the case, Chaudhary was arrested and was released on bail later.
In the first week of November last year, it was revealed that two Indians had obtained Nepali citizenship from Kapilvastu. Balaji, an Indian national and his wife, Indrawati, who lives in Shohratgarh in Siddharthanagar district in UP, had obtained Nepali citizenship from Maharajgunj Municipality-1 of Kapilvastu district.
Balaji had assumed the name of Raju Yadav in the Nepali citizenship. Both husband and wife obtained their citizenship from the District Administration Office on September 19, 2018 by presenting Gobare Ahir of Maharajgunj-1, Aurahawa of Kapilvastu, as their father.

Police records reveal mounting fake citizenship cases
According to the Police Headquarters, 13 fake citizenship cases had already been registered across the country from April, 2020 to November 16, 2020. Among them, with five cases Province 2 registered the highest, while Bagmati, Province 5, and Karnali Province reported two cases each with one each in both Kathmandu Valley and Sudurpaschim Province.
In the last three years from 2074 B.S. and in nine months of the current year (2077), Nepal Police registered altogether 252 cases of fake citizenships. Police had registered 68 cases in the year 2074, 91 in 2075 and 81 in 2076 B.S., and 13 in 2077 as of Kartik. In the last 45 months from the fiscal year of 2074 B.S., the highest number of fakecitizenship cases had been registered in Province 2 with 90 cases, 75 in Province 5, 65 in Province 1, 20 in Bagmati Province, 19 in Gandaki Province, nine in Karnali Province and four in Sudurpaschim Province. Kathmandu Valley registered 20 cases within the same time frame.

Security threat increases, experts say
Security experts said that Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani Muslims and some Tibetans have been trying to settle in Nepal for the past few years with fake citizenship certificates. This poses a growing threat to Nepal's insecurity, they claim.
Former AIG of Nepal Police, Keshav Adhikari, said, "Especially in the Terai region, there are cases of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani citizens applying for Nepali citizenship by submitting fake documents."
Criminologist Krishna Kumar Tamang and former AIG of Armed Police Force (APF) said that acquiring Nepali citizenship by foreigners illegally will be a security challenge.
"The issue of citizenship in the Indian border is becoming an alarming issue from the point of view of security. It is also counterproductive in the long run for the welfare of the country," Tamang said.
He said those who enterred Nepal to avoid police action in their countries took fake citizenship and abused it. Apart from this, the objective is to enjoy citizenship benefits.

Legal system
According to the Citizenship Certificate Distribution Operation Directive, 2070, if a foreigner acquires citizenship by giving false details as per sub-section 9 (10) of the Section 21 of the Citizenship Act, he/she can be imprisoned for one to five years or fined Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000 or both.
Similarly, those who identify and recommend citizenship to a foreigner are liable to imprisonment for six months to three years or a fine of Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 50,000 or both.