CIAA Investigation Reveals Systematic Trafficking Under Visit Visa Cover, Files Case Against Bhattarai

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case at the Special Court against former Immigration Chief at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Tirtharaj Bhattarai and six others, as well as two companies for their alleged involvement in facilitating human trafficking under the guise of visit visas.

The CIAA has accused them of aiding illegal travel in exchange for bribes and laundering illicit earnings. The commission has sought a recovery of Rs 7.98 million from Bhattarai as per the Anti-Corruption Act. It has also demanded Rs 800,000 from Immigration Officer Yagyaraj Aryal; Rs 3.02 million from operator of Greenline Holidays, Bal Krishna Khadka; Rs 1.06 million from operator of Family Holidays, Deepak Bhandari; and Rs 3.02 million from Ram Khadka. Similarly, it has sought Rs 7.98 million each from Bhattarai’s relative Kavita Paudel and land agent Khem Subedi.

What the CIAA investigation found

According to the CIAA, Bhattarai abused his position between October 9 and May 21 of the last fiscal year, running an organised racket in collusion with middlemen. He allegedly allowed passengers travelling on visit visas to pass through immigration without verifying mandatory documents or uploading them into the system, provided they paid him. Passengers who submitted all the required documents but did not pay bribes were reportedly harassed.

The investigation found that Bhattarai maintained regular contact with travel agency operators Bal Krishna Khadka and Deepak Bhandari, exchanging lists of passengers. He received names through SMS and recorded his accounts in coded entries in a personal diary. He kept separate codes for male and female travellers—recording “0.2” to indicate a Rs 20,000 bribe for each male traveller and “0.4” to indicate a Rs 40,000 bribe for each female traveller. Once the bribe was received, he used the phrase “clear to bulk” as a code for allowing passage.

According to the CIAA, Bhattarai and his associates illegally facilitated the departure of 257 individuals—142 women and 115 men.

Middlemen delivered cash to Bhattarai at Vinoliva Restaurant, referring to the bundles as “parcels.” Bhattarai personally collected the money. The CIAA said he used his relative Kavita Paudel and land trading agent Khem Prasad Subedi to channel and invest the illicit funds in land purchases, attempting to conceal their origin. He also used a SIM card registered under Paudel's name for communication related to the “setting” arrangements.

A digital forensic examination of Bhattarai’s seized laptop and mobile phone revealed key evidence. Investigators recovered images of passengers’ passports stored on his laptop. Although photographs of lists of travellers had been deleted from his phone, forensic analysis successfully retrieved them, the CIAA stated.