It seems like just yesterday that the momentous story broke. Police started investigating the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">fake Bhutanese refugee scandal</a>, and Nepalis held their breath. At last it looked like justice would be done.&nbsp;
Police followed the digital trail from middlemen who hoodwinked hundreds of Nepalis to part with millions of rupees. Phone records and text messages led them to the highest people in the land. Former ministers and secretaries were tracked down and arrested.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">The story</a> was first broken in a piece commissioned by the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal, and written by Devendra Bhattarai for Kantipur daily in June. Despite state malfunction, it finally looked like press freedom, democracy and the rule of law were intact in Nepal after all.&nbsp;
Morale in the police and investigation agencies went up, journalists were encouraged that coverage had impact. After all, previous police inspectors and even the Commission on Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had received the complaints about being swindled by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">fake refugee middlemen and their political patrons</a>, but had filed them away.&nbsp;
But it was all too good to last. SSP Manoj KC and AIG Shyam Gyawali, the two police inspectors leading the team investigating the refugee scam, were transferred.&nbsp;
We have since learnt that the Maoist Home Minister was under pressure to do so from topmost Nepali Congress (NC) leaders and their consorts of whom police had evidence of collusion. Not surprisingly, KC was replaced by Basanta Kunwar, the same police inspector who had earlier buried the complaint.
More scandals then erupted, including those involving the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">sale of Baluwatar real estate</a> and gold ornaments at Pashupati.&nbsp;
In none of these were Maoist officials involved.&nbsp;
Then, as if on cue, 100kg of gold was found being smuggled from Hong Kong concealed as motorcycle brake pads. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-gets-gold-medal-for-corruption">Investigations led to senior Maoists and their progeny</a>, and it emerged that the organised criminals has used brake pads and vapes numerous times before.&nbsp;
Now, with all three of Nepal’s main parties neck-deep in muck, the scandals cancelled each other out. Backroom deals ensured ‘I will not probe your scandal if you don’t probe mine’.
Fast forward two months: none of these monsoon scandals have come to anything. Some small fish have been netted, other bigger fish are out on bail, but the cases are not going anywhere. This week, the CIAA made a show of framing a sitting Commerce Secretary on an unrelated budget allocation. Its chief is clearly trying to distract us from his earlier cover-up of the Bhutan refugee case.
The media has moved on, social media is captivated by the viral video of the day, and the three main parties are glad Nepalis suffer collective amnesia. Mainstream politicians are back to impunity as usual, using the Constitution Day pardon list to get President Ram Chandra Poudel to release a notorious gangster serving a 20-year jail term for murder.&nbsp;
They are playing politics with rising <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/east-is-east">ethno-religious tensions in Kosi Province</a> and across the Tarai where social networking sites have been weaponised with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/crimson-saffron-and-green">Hindutva hate speech</a>. Throughout all this, the prime minister disappeared for nearly three weeks on a round the world photo-op.
It does not look like the gerontocracy of the NC, the Maoists or the UML have seen the writing on the wall. They were up on the balcony of Gaddi Baithak on Indra Jatra on 28 September (pictured) and must have witnessed the frenzied welcome for Mayor Balen Shah. Still stuck in partisan power struggles, they underestimate the anti-establishment public mood.&nbsp;
Independents and alternative parties are riding a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">populist anti-incumbent wave </a>among Nepali youth. The dinosaurs of Nepali politics are oblivious to the approaching asteroid.&nbsp;

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State malfunction

On 18 July, the Department of Revenue raided the cargo terminal at Kathmandu airport and seized 61kg of gold being smuggled in from Hong Kong hidden inside brake shoes of two-wheelers. Although this was the biggest haul of contraband gold in the country’s sordid history, it emerged that the smugglers had already carried out similar jobs dozens of times before.
In the days following the raid, Nepal Police arrested 21 individuals involved, including customs officials, Chinese and Indian nationals, and middlemen. Top politicians and their cronies who were the alleged masterminds were not touched.
The names included former Maoist minister Barshaman Pun, former speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, the family of former vice-president Nanda Kishor Pun, and Maoist Centre vice-chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara and his son.
Mahara was also said to be involved in another gold smuggling operation in December 2022 in which a Chinese national was found to have brought in gold concealed inside e-cigarettes at the airport
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale
Investigative journalists then uncovered Mahara &amp; Son trying to pressure officials to release the gold for auction. The Maoist leader has denied being involved, but police have phone records to prove otherwise. Meantime, the gold itself has vanished from storage.&nbsp;
The stench from scam after scam this year has become unbearable. If this was an international tournament, Nepal should get the Gold Medal for corruption. And these are just the scandals that we know about, away from the spotlight there is rampant extortion by politicians and bureaucrats of businesses throughout the land.
Interestingly, not a single politician from the Maoist party of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha is behind bars. Nepali Congress (NC), opposition UML and Maoist defectors are in jail for the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal. The Lalita Niwas real estate scam has implicated just about everyone, even those who bought the property. But no Maoists.&nbsp;
Since senior figures from all three main parties are now entangled in one scandal or the other, a devious effort is afoot to protect each other from prosecution. It seems Nepal’s feuding politicians can only agree to scratching each other’s backs during their three-party meetings to discuss the UML obstruction of the house over the gold smuggling case.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki
NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba has continuously and blatantly blocked attempts to investigate his wife Arzoo Rana in the refugee scam, and pressured Prime Minister Dahal this week to transfer Kathmandu Valley police chief AIG Shyam Gyawali, SSP Manoj KC of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, and Chief of Kathmandu Police SSP Dan Bahadur Karki. Dahal was only too happy to oblige since his comrades were also knee-deep in scandals.
The move has blindsided Home Minister Shrestha and brought into question his public commitment to rid the country of corruption.&nbsp;
As it stands, Nepal’s jumbo coalition government is held together only by mutual distrust. Deuba and other parties of the coalition are keeping close watch so Dahal does not direct ongoing investigations towards their own leadership in retaliation. And Dahal needs Deuba so he can remain in power to continue to loot in cahoots with cronies.
Nepal’s Supreme Court also ordered investigations into CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal and Nepal Socialist Party head Baburam Bhattarai in the Lalita Niwas scam, but that has not gone anywhere. Both parties are in the coalition.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">Losing our moral compass</a>, Editorial
Meanwhile, the government has concluded that the Gaur Massacre does not need an investigation. Dozens of Maoist cadres were brutally massacred in a 2007 confrontation. But since Upendra Yadav who was said to have masterminded it is now a key member of the ruling coalition, Dahal is willing to let bygones be bygones.
While scandals are erupting thick and fast, the Maoists are mum about their own embezzlement 15 years ago of billions meant for their former guerrillas in UN-supervised demobilisation camps whose numbers they have admitted to inflating.
Even as the Prime Minister and the Home Minister keep giving speeches saying the rule of law applies to all equally, it looks like some are more equal than others. With a few exceptions, none of the big fish have been netted, and even those who have could now be let go because investigating officers have been removed and replaced with yes men.&nbsp;
Early on, it really did look like Home Minister Shrestha, the CIB and the Police were going after the big crooks, and that this would deter thievery. Alas, that was wishful thinking. The politicisation of crime and criminalisation of politics is now complete.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/political-trash">Political trash</a>, Shristi Karki

Nepal gets Gold Medal for corruption

A former deputy prime minister, an ex-home minister, an erstwhile election commissioner, a senior government secretary and dozens of others are behind bars in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">Big heads have rolled</a>, but are bigger heads being deliberately spared? The<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top"> fake Bhutan refugee scandal</a> and the organised crime behind the Lalita Niwas real estate scam have shown that Nepal’s media, investigation agencies, law enforcement and court system are all playing their check and balance roles. However, there is a whiff of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/rule-of-the-lawless">political vendetta</a> in some of the arrests, and concerns that even bigger fish are being let off the hook. There is also apprehension that loopholes in existing laws will be used for the guilty to get away, and some of the innocent who were duped by middlemen will be made scapegoats.&nbsp; “Politicians have made a mess of our legal and judicial system, they are strategically introducing and amending laws to suit their purpose,” says Padmini Pradhananga of the Nepal chapter of Transparency International.&nbsp; “The government has proposed a five-year time limit for prosecuting corruption,” she adds. “There can never be a statute of limitation in corruption cases, this is just unacceptable” Eyebrows are also being raised about why a coalition government in which both the prime minister and home minister are from the Maoist party has chosen to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/i-speak-nothing-but-the-truth-your-honour">prosecute</a> these two high profile corruption cases so doggedly. Not a single senior Maoist figure has been implicated in either scandal, and the first senior politicians to be named were Top Bahadur Raymajhi and Ram Bahadur Thapa, both former Maoists who defected to the UML in 2021. Independent observers say that although there is evidence against most of the accused so far in both cases of corruption in high places, there does not seem to be the same eagerness to probe <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/CIAA-under-threat,124">alleged embezzlement</a> by Maoist leaders of government allowances to the nearly 20,000 former guerrillas being demobilised in UN-supervised camps after the ceasefire.&nbsp; Hari Bahadur Thapa, author of the 2017 book Rajagj which examines <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-shortsighted-view-tower-craze">corruption</a> cases in Nepal’s recent history, says both the fake refugee scandal and the Lalita Niwas scam are manifestations of a corrupt bureaucracy that is rotten to the core and has contaminated the polity. The twin scandals rocking the highest levels of the Nepal government come at a time when the nine-party <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/the-reign-god">coalition of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal </a>is looking increasingly fragile. Part of the reason is Parliamentary arithmetics, but it is also because of the prime minister’s proclivity to ad lib. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/political-trash">Political trash</a>, Shristi Karki Coalition members themselves have been critical of the<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-tax-system-widens-rich-poor-gap"> new budget</a>, but Dahal managed to pacify them by offering pork-barrel funds. And when news leaked of the opposition UML making overtures to dissidents within the Nepali Congress, the prime minister responded by bringing together five leftist parties (except the UML) to form a loose Socialist Front.&nbsp; Prime Minister Dahal is facing flak for an unscripted remark at a book launch this week in which he said a Sikh transport tycoon had gone to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/super-hit-or-super-flop">New Delhi </a>to try to make him prime minister. A video clip of the remark lit fireworks on social media that led to opposition parties disrupting Parliament and demanding Dahal’s resignation. &nbsp;&nbsp; All this brouhaha is distracting attention from the ongoing investigations into the two scandals. Most of those charged appear to have been involved in varying degrees of wrongdoing. After last year’s elections in which i<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/rise-of-the-independents">ndependent and alternative candidates made a strong showing</a>, the Maoists may have read the writing on the wall and want to clean up their image to distinguish themselves from other established parties in the coalition and the opposition. It was the media that first exposed the fake refugee scam and has been uncovering some of the sordid details in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-oligarchy">Baluwatar land scam</a>. The Nepal Police and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) also appear to have been given a free hand in pursuing the cases. &nbsp;&nbsp; “Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has repeatedly reassured people that no one involved in the scam will be spared. Let’s give him the benefit of doubt, at least he is cracking down on the culprits,” says former government secretary Khem Raj Regmi. He adds: “This gives the public a real hope that other corruption cases like the wide body scandal will also be investigated. But we have to keep prosecuting corruption cases right till the end, we can’t be complacent.” However, this has not absolved Home Minister Shrestha from allegations that his party is pursuing political vendetta, and at the same time trying to limit the investigation to mid-level political figures. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">Nepal Populist Party (Balenist)</a>, Editorial  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230706090748_c439bb466484b25194143c12022cc974a1eb1b5435dc0254c8f7f1548efd1389.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20230706090748_c439bb466484b25194143c12022cc974a1eb1b5435dc0254c8f7f1548efd1389" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2288" loading="lazy" alt="Page 4 RSS"> <figcaption>ALL SMILES: Prime Minister Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the CPN (US) at a function this week in Bhaktapur. Nepal has been implicated in the Baluwatar land grab scam. Photo: PRADEEP RAJ ONTA/RSS</figcaption> </figure>  When the police dragnet started to widen in May, the three top leaders of the Maoist Centre, Nepali Congress and the UML circled their wagons and held lengthy meetings in Baluwatar in what was seen as a damage control exercise to ensure that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">the investigation </a>did not reach the highest echelons.&nbsp; For example, Arzoo Deuba, the wife of NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba, has not been investigated despite being implicated, as others who were arrested were, in testimonies on the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal. Likewise, former prime ministers Babauram Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal have also been spared so far in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-unreal-real-estate-prices">Lalita Niwas scam</a> even though their Cabinets allowed ownership of government land to be transferred to private entities.&nbsp; ‘If they do not go after people like Arzoo Deuba, Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal, they cannot accuse those lower down who were just following orders,’ argued &nbsp;senior advocate Balkrishna Neupane in an interview with Everest News. ‘All this boils down to the involvement of politicians post multi-party democracy in organised crime.’ The two scandals have also bolstered the argument of monarchists who have been engaged in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/now-and-then">heated debate in the public sphere</a> about whether Nepal was better governed during the Panchayat days. They say the fake refugee scandal is high treason, and the real estate scam is indication that the rot goes right to the top.&nbsp; However, it could also be argued that the scandals have been exposed and investigated precisely because Nepal has a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/monopoly-on-information">free media</a>, functioning rule of law and independent investigations.&nbsp; The concern now is the politicisation of the judiciary and the CIAA (Commission on the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority) and whether they are being restricted to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/ciaa-traps-small-fish-lets-big-ones-go">investigating only mid-level bureaucrats and selected politicians</a>. Indeed, the CIAA in 2020 had under political pressure quashed the investigation into the forgery of land titles of Lalita Niwas, and the CIB revived the case only after Shrestha became home minister.&nbsp; “In Nepal, we have national unity only in high level corruption cases where the top leadership are hand in glove with each other,” says Khem Raj Regmi former secretary who also served as president of Transparency International Nepal. “For example, in the Sudan APC scam, there was no paper trail to implicate politicians, and the police took the fall.” In 2017, three former police chiefs were jailed for misappropriating Rs288 million while purchasing armoured personnel carriers and other logistics for the Nepal Police peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur. The kickbacks would not have been possible without collusion at the highest levels of government.&nbsp; Unlike in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/04/30/shadow-over-elections/">Sudan Scam</a>, the Lalita Niwas case has files with signed documents by ex-prime ministers Bhattarai and Nepal but the CIAA cited a legal provision that policy decisions by the Cabinet are out of bounds to shelve the probe. The anti-graft body was investigating the case after former secretary Sarada Prasad Trital led an investigation committee on the Lalita Niwas land scam at the behest of the UML government at the time. “We have now reached a point where corruption is taking a dangerous form of organised crime,” says investigative journalist and author Hari Bahadur Thapa. “There are also indications that political rivalry is driving some of the investigations.” Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-tragedy-of-tek-nath-rizal-2g4dahmr">The tragedy of Tek Nath Rizal</a>, Editorial The CIAA also spared those who returned Lalita Niwas property, including senior UML politician <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/let-them-eat-cake">Bishnu Poudel</a>. But others who also returned land they bought were not accorded the same concession and are in the CIB dragnet. Those who innocently bought property from real estate agents but were not otherwise involved are also being investigated.&nbsp; Explains Regmi: “Not all Cabinet decisions are policy decisions, the CIAA should have allowed the court to decide that. The fact that they did not means that there was political interference.”&nbsp; There have been many complaints over the years that the CIAA has been<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/commission-for-the-abuse-of-authority-karki-impeachment,3335"> used by politicians to go after rivals and for extortion</a>. Calls for it to be headed by independent and credible individuals have never been heeded.&nbsp; “It is clear for everyone to see that major players were being protected with the excuse that they made policy decisions in Cabinet. If only the CIAA had worked more honestly, we would not be in this mess,” adds author Thapa. Pradhananga of Transparency International agrees that politicians want to call everything a ‘policy decision’ so that no one can challenge them. She says: “This is the same as saying we are not allowed to question them once they are elected. In that case, what is the use of the CIAA? Policy decisions are supposed to be for the public good, not for personal gain.” Prime Minister Dahal has been using the anti-corruption crusade launched by Home Minister Shrestha as proof that his party is committed to root out corruption. He has vowed that senior political figures will not be spared.&nbsp; Even critics give Dahal and Shrestha credit for re-opening the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-has-to-curb-corruption-before-wooing-investors">corruption files</a>. The fake refugee scandal has further dented Nepal’s international standing and the Lalita Niwas land grab has shown that Nepal has been hollowed out by corruption.&nbsp; “Nepal has lost the goodwill and trust of the world,” says Pradhananga. “We have damaged our reputation for loyalty and bravery. It will have consequences for big projects in Nepal and our diaspora.”&nbsp; The investigations into the two scandals demonstrate that there is political will to set things right – but only if the probes are free from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/chief-justice-suspension-linked-to-mcc-ratification">political interference</a>.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/real-refugees-want-to-go-back-to-bhutan">Real refugees want to go back to Bhutan</a>, Sujata Dhungana

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State malfunction

Nepal gets Gold Medal for corruption

Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal