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Kathmandu,Saturday May 13, 2000 Baishakh 31, 2057.
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Passport abusers made public
By Gunaraj Luintel
KATHMANDU, May 12 - The government today decided to
take action against those who misuse red (diplomatic) passports and make public the report
on those who’ve misused it. The decision was taken by the Cabinet meeting on
Thursday.
According to a source at the Home Ministry, this
decision was taken by the previous government also. The then government had also sent the
report to the Parliament Secretariat.
"We had sent two reports (prepared by the
Probe Committee and the Judicial Commission) to the Police Headquarters to take action
against the culprits as per the then Cabinet decision," the Home Ministry source told
The Kathmandu Post.
Chief of Crime Investigation Branch, Police
Headquarters, Additional Inspector General of Police, Pradip Shumsher JB Rana, however,
denies having received such a report. "We haven’t received such report," he
said.
The then government had formed a Probe Committee to
investigate the misuse of red passport by the ministers and sitting Members of Parliament
under the convenorship of then Special Secretary Srikant Regmi. The Committee had
recommended forming a Judicial Commission to further investigate the matter after it found
evidences of such misuse.
As per the recommendation of the Committee, the
Commission was formed under the chairmanship of former Justice Prachanda Raj Anil.
Jhalendra Prasad Chhatkuli was later appointed the chairman after Anil resigned.
The decision to take action and make the report
public was taken by the government a few days after the Commission submitted its report.
The report shows the involvement of then MPs of ruling Nepali Congress, main opposition
CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and CPN-ML.
Those who misused their passports had applied for
visa for them and their kins to countries like Canada, USA, United Kingdom under fake
invitations.
According to the report, 13 MPs misused their
passports. Those who misusued their passports were: Man Bahadur Bishwokarma (nominated by
the King), Dev Shankar Poudel of CPN-UML, Hem Raj Rai and Hikmat Bahadur Shahi of CPN-ML,
Dipak Jung Shah, Chakra Bahadur Shahi, Bhakta Bahadur Rokaya, Moti Prasad Pahadi, Naresh
Bahadur Singh, Yagya Prasad Acharya, Hasta Bahadur Malla and Ram Chandra Adhikari of NC
and Jyotendra Mohan Choudhari of RPP.
According to the Committee report, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs has so far issued 8,000 red passports. Four hundred and eighty-one red
passports were missing when the Regmi Committee was at work.
The Passport Act-2024 and its first amendment makes
it mandatory for the users of red passport holders to return their passport upon their
return.
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