Kathmandu — A gang involved in producing counterfeit documents for various commercial banks and government offices has been apprehended in Tarkeshwor Municipality, Kathmandu. Police arrested three individuals from a house in Futung, where they had been operating a document forgery ring, fabricating fake checkbooks, bank statements, land ownership certificates, and other official documents.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Anjani Bayalkoti of Bhimsen Thapa, Gorkha; Nirmal Khadka of Champadevi, Okhaldhunga; and Anju Khatri of Kailash, Makwanpur. According to police, Bayalkoti had been involved in forgery for the past eight years. Initially, he worked in another person’s illegal setup before starting his own document-forging operation.

The group is accused of producing and using fake documents from both government and private institutions, including recommendation letters from local governments, academic certificates, land ownership certificates, driving licenses, and marriage registration certificates—particularly for individuals applying for dependent visas abroad.

They also forged land certificates to secure loans from banks and prepared fake cooperative institution statements for students applying to study in Japan, which were reportedly sent via courier. Furthermore, they produced fake academic certificates and experience letters for individuals planning to go abroad on working visas, especially to countries like Japan.

Police revealed that the group even created fake medical documents in the name of institutions like Manmohan Memorial Hospital, Salyan District Court, and National Academy of Medical Sciences (Bir Hospital) for Nepali nationals applying for permanent residency (PR) or green cards abroad.

According to Kaaji Kumar Acharya, spokesperson of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, the group provided forged bank statements identical to those from major “Class A” banks for visa applications. These included statements from banks such as Prabhu Bank, Nabil Bank, NIC Asia Bank, and Rastriya Banijya Bank. The counterfeit documents were reportedly indistinguishable from authentic ones.

The police also recovered several forged items, including:

• 42 copies of residency certificates
• 60 character certificates
• 110 academic transcripts
• 5 marriage certificates
• 50 temporary certificates
• 10 land ownership certificates
• 17 cooperative institution letterheads
• 7 annual audit certifications
• 1 lamination machine, 1 heat machine, and 1 die-cutting machine
• 17 pages of cooperative institution statements
• 2 pages of health institution recommendation letters
• 100 pages of fake bank statements
• 17 ink cartridges
• 20 local recommendation letters
• 355 official stamps from various governmental and non-governmental bodies
• 2 monitors and 2 CPUs

The suspects had rented a single room in Futung to operate their forgery lab, employing two assistants on monthly salaries between NPR 10,000 to 15,000. Police noted that the group frequently changed locations to avoid detection.

All confiscated materials have been submitted to the court, and legal proceedings have commenced, spokesperson Acharya confirmed. Further investigation is underway to determine where and in which institutions the fake documents were used.