By Our Reporter
Although Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Deputy and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha often boast about the arrests of a few powerful politicians and others in cases related to the fake Bhutanese refugee scam and the Lalita Niwas land scam, their latest activities suggest otherwise.
When the media reported that Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara and his son were involved in the smuggling of gold, the Prime Minister applied measures to weaken the cases.
It is evident from the transfer of the investigating police officers who were looking into the fake Bhutanese Refugee case in the middle.
Although it is said that PM Dahal and Home Minister Shrestha transferred the police officers under the pressure of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and his spouse Arzu Rana as the police investigation started directed towards Arzu, the Prime Minister intended to weaken all three cases to avoid the arrest of Mahara and his son in the gold smuggling case.
The Home Ministry recently transferred Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office Manoj KC, and Chief of Kathmandu Police SSP Dan Bahadur Karki to the Nepal Police Headquarters. KC is regarded to be the most competent police officer who dared to arrest former home minister Bal Krishna Khand in the fake Bhutanese refugee case.
A Cabinet meeting on Friday also transferred Chief of the Kathmandu Valley Police Office (Metro) at Ranipokhari AIG Shyam Gyawali, who was also actively involved in the investigation of the scam, to the Nepal Police Headquarters just four and a half months after he was posted at Ranipokhari.
The transfers happened just days after the media reported that the Police officers were preparing to again investigate two masterminds of the fake Bhutanese refugee scam — Keshav Dulal and Sanu Bhandari, and record their statements.
According to the media, Deuba met PM Dahal and put pressure on the latter to transfer the Chief of the Kathmandu Valley Police Office (Metro) at Ranipokhari AIG Shyam Gyawali and Chief of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office SSP Manoj KC at any cost. Likewise, Arzu also met PM Dahal and expressed displeasure at again resuming the investigation in the case. The Deuba couple seemed afraid of the investigation as Arzu is also linked in the case. And if she is booked, Deuba’s plan to establish Arzu in NC as a powerful leader will be shattered.
Obviously, Dahal wants to give continuity to the present coalition and cannot hurt Deuba and Arzu. He dully followed their instructions giving up his stance for maintaining good governance.
Also by agreeing to the proposal of the Deuba couple, he also paved the way for similar tactics to save Mahara and other Maoist leaders.
Also, PM Dahal does not want to irk Madhav Kumar Nepal and Dr. Bhattarai who were grilled in the Lalita Niwas scam. While showing a soft corner to these two leaders, the Lalita Niwas case will automatically become weak,
In the case of gold smuggling, the government agreed to form a high-level committee as demanded by the UML. When a committee investigates any crime, no guilty will be punished at least in Nepal. There are several pieces of evidence to prove this.
The pressure to transfer the police officers investigating the fake Bhutanese case piled on Dahal after 18 new victims from Lamjung, Sunsari, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Lalitpur, Kathmandu and other districts lodged three complaints in the scam accusing Dulal, Bhandari and Ram Sharan KC of fleecing Rs 18.50 million. The Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office initiated the necessary process for the complaints and sent them to the Kathmandu Police for additional investigation.
Dulal, Bhandari and KC, who are currently in custody, will again be investigated and their statement will have to be recorded again if the process moves forward.
NC leaders objected after the new complaints about the scam have been processed. They may be fearing that the series of investigations in the case may continue and additional NC leaders may end up in jail. Former Home Minister Khand has already been jailed in the same case.
CIB collects statements from Madhav Nepal, Baburam for just formality
By Our Reporter
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) of Nepal Police has taken statements from two former Prime Ministers Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal regarding the Lalita Niwas land case.
The CIB went to the homes of both the former prime ministers and took their statements and submitted its report, as reported by the media.
The statements were collected just for formality. On Tuesday, the CIB decided not to make the two former prime ministers defendant but government witnesses in the case.
It is because Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal does not want to jail the ex-PMs because he has been the PM only because of Madahv Nepal.
Meanwhile, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police handed over the investigation report of the Lalita Niwas land scam to the District Government Attorney Office, Kathmandu on Tuesday.
The CIB has suggested the District Government Attorney’s Office file cases against around 250 persons including former Deputy Prime Minister and Nepali Congress leader Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar for organised crime and forgery of government documents.
The CIB has also suggested naming former ministers Chandra Dev Joshi and Dambar Bahadur Shrestha, former state minister Sanjay Sah Takla and former chief commissioner for the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Deep Basnyat, among others, as defendants in the case.
Likewise, Shobhakant Dhakal, Ram Kumar Subedi and Bhatbhateni Supermarket owner Min Bahadur Gurung have been named as prime suspects while Bhattarai and Nepal have been named as government witnesses.
Lalita Niwas covers some 143 ropanis of land and includes the Prime Minister’s residence, Nepal Rastra Bank’s central office and some other residences of key government officials.
According to CIB’s spokesperson and Superintendent of Police, the CIB had received arrest warrants against 406 individuals. CIB submitted the investigation report to the Attorney’s Office on the 57th day of their arrest.
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