Kathmandu, July 8 -- Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday convicted former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former home minister Bal Krishna Khand and 14 others in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, finding them guilty of conspiring to send Nepali citizens to the United States by passing them off as Bhutanese refugees.

Three years after the case was filed, a single bench of Kathmandu District Court Judge Tej Bahadur Khadka convicted the defendants of forgery, fraud, organised crime and offences against the state, depending on the nature of the charges and each defendant's role in the scheme. Along with Rayamajhi and Khand, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, members of the network Keshav Dulal, Sanu Bhandari, Sagar Rai and...