Vice-chairman Giri named in loan default scam

Cabinet vice-chairman, Dr Tulsi Giri, has been linked to a bank loan default scam worth Rs.17.4 million, news reports Saturday said.

Giri, who made a surprise comeback in Nepali politics four months ago after two decades of self exile in Sri Lanka and India, was dragged into controversy after his name appeared in the blacklist of the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) for wilfully defaulting loan obtained from the state-owned Nepal Bank Limited (NBL).

A report in Kantipur daily today said that, in February 1986, a private company called Himalaya Plastic Pvt Ltd chaired and jointly-owned by Giri, borrowed Rs.2 million from the NBL with Giri himself being the guarantor. Along with him, two other operators of the company, Basanta Kumar Gatani and Ram Prasad Gatani, have also been blacklisted.

Two months later - before leaving the country - Giri called a board meeting of the company, which decided to handover the authority to Anil Kumar Gupta to operate the company’s bank account as Giri had to travel outside the country frequently.

“Any loss or damage caused to the bank due to Gupta's handling of the account will be borne by the board," the report citied the minutiae of the company's board meeting two decades back.

Following a report in a weekly tabloid about his blacklisting in the scam weeks earlier, Giri had telephoned the bank officials, seeking the details about the company in question. He then he went on to claim that he had no links with the company and that the documents with the bank were phony.

According to Kantipur, the cabinet vice-chairman has conceded his involvement with the said company. "The directors informed me that they had paid the loan and the bank never contacted me. I therefore never knew about the default," Giri replied and added, “Let the bank first contact me. I will then talk to my lawyers and decide what to do.”

Formal clarification from Giri regarding the matter is yet to come. nepalnews.com mbk June 11 05