By Our Reporter
Nepali people are now living in a national shame thanks to the corrupt leaders who are ready to resort to any illegal works to amass property and give protection to the corrupt persons.
This is evident from the arrest of powerful politicians including Nepali Congress leader and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, former Deputy Prime Minister and UML secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, secretary of Nepal Government Tek Narayan Pande and former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s advisor Indrajit Rai in the case related to fake Bhutanese refugees.
As of Wednesday, 14 individuals are in police custody in the case while a few are on the run and the police are searching for evidence of other politicians whose names were mentioned in the statements of the detained individuals.
While Nepali Congress leader and Constituent Assembly member Angtawa Sherpa surrendered to the police Monday evening, Police arrested Rayamjahi on Sunday night, on the 11th day after the issuance of an arrest warrant against him, from Budhanilkantha area in Kathmandu.
Still, the son of Indrajit Rai is on the run while Manju Khand, wife of former Home Minister Khand, has been hiding after the leakage of an audio in which she and Arzu Rana, wife of NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba, are heard to have received Rs. 60 million and Rs. 20 million from the middlemen of the scam respectively although no arrest warrant has been issued against Khand. However, Arzu Rana has denied her involvement and has openly challenged to prove the allegation against her.
However, the political leadership in the ruling Nepali Congress and the main opposition CPN-UML have applied every measure to weaken the police investigation into the case.
Both NC president Deuba and UML chairman KP Sharma Oli have been frequently visiting Baluwatar, the official residence of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ after the police issued an arrest warrant against UML secretary Rayamajhi and arrested NC leader and former Home Minister Khand.
Although the two leaders and even PM Dahal said that they discussed other issues, people and media have suspected that whether they discussed the loopholes to weaken the police investigation into the fake Bhutanese Refugee case.
Intriguingly, Rayamajhi appeared in Kathmandu and Sherpa surrendered to the police after Deuba and Oli held several rounds of meetings with PM Dahal. This has increased the suspicion of whether the case related to the shameful case will be dismissed like other cases.
However, it is not that easy to dismiss the case this time for mainly two reasons. First, there is Rastriya Swatantra Party and a faction of the Nepali Congress in the parliament which have been exerting pressure on the government to strongly investigate the case and book all the culprits, and they are strongly backed by the public. People across the country have been staging demonstrations demanding that the case of the fake Bhutanese refugees should be concluded independently.
Secondly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the USA is reportedly closely observing the case, as the fake Bhutanese refugees were prepared to send them to the USA.
Moreover, this case has tarnished the image of Nepal internationally. Can one imagine the leaders in power collecting money from its citizens making them non-citizens or foreign refugees in the name of sending them to the USA? But Nepali leaders did it, protected those involved in these heinous crimes and they are now trying to influence the police investigation. It is the biggest shame for any honest Nepali.
Obviously, many leaders and top bureaucrats are sure to be dragged into the case. Deuba fears whether Arzu will also be dragged, Oli fears whether Prem Kumar Rai, the former home secretary and the chairman of the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority, who was appointed to the anti-graft body in the setting, as revealed by detained Indrajit Rai, will be linked to the case. If Rai is arrested, he can reveal the names of powerful leaders involved in the case, and Oli wants to avert the situation while Deuba wants to protect his ambitious wife, who had the upper hand in state administration when Deuba was the Prime Minister.
But the circumstances show that it is not that easy to dismiss the case this time. Any attempt to dismiss it could be counterproductive for the political parties and their leaders. Of course, the case has undressed our leaders and has ended their political careers.
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