By Our Reporter
Cases related to the fake Bhutanese refugees and Lalita Niwas land scam have exposed the corrupt faces of Nepali politicians and bureaucrats as well as greedy businessmen.
When the police found evidence regarding their connection to the crime of changing the status of genuine Nepali citizens as Bhutanese refugees in the greed of a few million rupees, Nepali Congress leader Bal Krishna Khand, who was the powerful Home Minister in the Deuba-led government until December end last year, and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, the former Maoist leader and Deputy Prime Minister, and now a UML secretary, are doing their days in judicial custody. Secretary Tek Narayan Pande and Indrajeet Rai, security advisor to former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, are also in the central jail for their involvement in the same case. Altogether, 16 people were arrested in the fake Bhutanese refugee case and 14 of them are in judicial custody
Likewise, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police has arrested 14 persons, including Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Krishna Bahadur Raut, former election commissioner Sudhir Shah, owner of Bhatbhateni Super Market Min Bahadur Gurung, former officials of the land revenue office, and others in the case related to the Lalita Niwas scam. Although no politicians have been arrested in connection with the Lalita Niwas case to date, the CIB could arrest them at any time, considering the latest arrests. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bishnu Paudel and even Dr. Baburam Bhattarai are said to be linked with the case, while Bijay Gachchhadar has already been released on bail.
When the CIB was busy arresting individuals related to the Lalita Niwas scam, the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police said that the audio message in which the name of Arzu Rana Deuba, wife of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and a central member of the Nepali Congress and lawmaker, is taken in the fake Bhutanese refugee case has been found to match the voice of Sandesh Sharma of Dang.
Sharma, who was arrested in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, is in custody for investigation into fraud and organized crime charges.
Rana had earlier dubbed the audio tape as fake.
Rana had submitted an application to the Cyber Bureau of the Nepal Police, demanding that the “fake audio tape” be investigated and action taken against the culprits.
In a statement, Nepal Police Spokesperson Kuber Kadayat said that while investigating the same application, the audio matched Sharma’s voice and asked for information from Tiktok Singapore about who had uploaded that audio to Tiktok for the first time.
In the tape, Sharma and another accused in the case, Sanu Bhandari are heard telling the court that they had paid millions of rupees to Arzu Rana and Manju Bhandari, wife of Bal Krishna Khand.
Now that the voice on the tape has matched Sharma’s, Arzu might also face an arrest in the case. However, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal may not dare to do so, because an arrest of Arzu could result in the collapse of his government. With the latest clarification from the police, the two women leaders, both lawmakers from the NC, could face the fate of Khand and Rayamajhi. Even if they are protected by politicians now, their image has been eroded in public.
Indeed, seeking clarification from the Cyber Bureau of Police on the audio tape looked like a stupid move of Arzu Deuba.
Anyway, the two cases are sure to end the political careers of many politicians of today as well as those corrupt civil servants.
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