Kathmandu, Dec. 11 -- The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Thursday filed corruption and money-laundering charges against former chief immigration officer at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Tirtha Raj Bhattarai, along with six individuals and two companies, alleging a large-scale bribery racket involving visit visas.

In a press release, the anti-graft body said it filed a charge sheet at the Special Court, Kathmandu, accusing Bhattarai of "deliberately setting up a system to send Nepali travellers abroad on visit visas through bribery", during his tenure from October 9, 2024 to May 16, 2025.

According to the CIAA, Bhattarai failed to follow mandatory directives requiring all visit-visa travellers' docu...