CIB to probe red passport scam

KATHMANDU, March 8: The red passport scam involving at least two lawmakers, and possibly many others, has finally gone into the hands of Nepal Police while the CA members in question are trying hard to ward off the investigation.



The case was handed over to Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), a high profile body of Nepal Police dealing with organized crimes, in the wake of CA chairman Subas Chandra Nembang´s direction to probe the scam. It, however, looks set to take a long time before CIB can put the lawmakers through the mill, officials said. [break]



CIB has not yet dealt with the lawmakers directly as the Parliament Secretariat is still trying to get hold of their documents relating to the case. BP Yadav, of Madhesi People´s Right Forum (MPRF), and Gyatri Shah, who represents Nepali Janata Dal, have been resisting the parliament secretariat´s instructions to produce their red passports, citizenship certificates and CA membership cards, the credentials, officials believe, that were tampered to fly two persons abroad.



“Yadav came and said that he could not provide his documents without his party´s permission,” said a high-ranking official. “That´s merely a pretext to avoid scrutiny.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affaris (MOFA) and the Parliament Secretariat have also implicated three other lawmakers, Shiva Pujan Raya, Ramva Khatun and Salma Khatun, of Madhesi People´s Right Forum, in the scam as they were also found to have taken visa notes for the same purpose of attending a program in Australia.



The lid came off the scam after two persons, who possessed red passports of Shah and Yadav, were sent back from Abu Dhabi while they were heading to Australia.

Meanwhile, the complaint lodged by Shah with the police against a racketeer and a subsequent finding that Yadav was in constant touch with the same racketeer mystified the case.



Parliamentary laws have it that the enforcement agencies can apprehend lawmakers if they are implicated in criminal charges after informing the CA chairman. “The chairman has already given a go ahead,” said officials. “If not for political interference, the case could be resolved immediately.”



If one is to believe the statement of Prithivi Chantyal, given to the Abu Dhabi Immigration before being sent back, the scam hints at an extensive misuse of red passports, at least.



He mentioned in the statement that he had given Rs 16 million to agents, Manoj Karki and Ashish Sherpa, to get the red passport with visas for different countries including Shenzhen visa. Officials believe that the said amount might have been paid to use at least 15 red passports, and that Chantyal himself could be a bigwig in the racket.

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