Kathmandu, June 11 -- The Kathmandu District Court has begun hearings in the high-profile fake Bhutanese refugee scam, nearly three years after prosecutors filed charges against former ministers, senior government officials and alleged brokers accused of defrauding hundreds of Nepalis with false promises of resettlement in the United States.

The court on Wednesday placed the case on a continuous hearing schedule, marking the first substantive phase of proceedings since charges were filed in May 2023.

Judge Tej Bahadur Khadka's bench heard arguments from lawyers representing some of the defendants and ordered the case to proceed without interruption. Court officials said the case entered the continuous hearing stage after Wednesday's ben...