The investigation committee has submitted a 45-page report to Prime Minister Balendra Shah, including detailed details of former Home Minister Sudhan Gurung's assets, sources of income, debts, and controversial relationships.
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The committee formed to investigate the assets of former Home Minister and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) MP Sudhan Gurung submitted a report to Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Friday.
Committee coordinator Bhandari said that the report was prepared after investigating the assets of former Minister Gurung, his sources of income and loans and submitted it to the Prime Minister. According to him, the committee has also compared the assets submitted to the Election Commission before the 21 Falgun elections and the assets made public after he became the Home Minister. “The report has been prepared by keeping the sources from which the assets were acquired in different ways,” he said.
According to a member of the committee, the report states that Gurung’s land does not appear to be unnatural and that it cannot be said that the sources of other assets are not revealed in an unnatural way. The report also states that direct relations with controversial businessman Deepak Bhatt could not be confirmed and no banking details of financial transactions between them were found. The 45-page report also mentions the work and economic activities done through an organization called ‘Hami Nepal’. After the disclosure of the then Home Minister Gurung's assets, there was a clamor to find out the source of his wealth, and his relationship with controversial businessman Bhatta was criticized. Gurung resigned from the post of Home Minister on 9 Baisakh after public criticism increased. About three weeks later, on 28 Baisakh, a meeting of the Council of Ministers formed an investigation committee under the leadership of former High Court judge Achyut Prasad Bhandari. The committee included Comptroller General Shobha Kant Poudel and Associate Attorney Achyutmani Neupane.
According to a member of the investigation committee, Gurung has 19 ropanis and 15 aanas of land in Karkichhap (Bhedetar area) of Dhankuta, 30 kattas in Bharatpur-18 of Chitwan, and 221 ropanis in Chumanubri of Gorkha, his grandfather's name. ‘We have written in the report that it cannot be called unnatural since it seems that the land in Gorkha is not highly valued, and only the land in Chitwan and Bhedetar may be worth a little more,’ the member said.
Former Home Minister Gurung, while giving a statement to the committee, had said that he had run a hotel business in Thamel and had invested in shares and gold based on its income. ‘When analyzing his assets, it was seen that he had earned money by selling the hotel in Thamel,’ said a member of the committee, ‘He had claimed that he had borrowed some of the money. The commission called the lender in the office and spoke to some of them through Zoom. We have kept their statements in the report as they are.’
According to the member, Gurung’s statement in the report is only 17 pages long, and the statements of other people named are also on a few pages. The report also analyzes Gurung’s investments in the stock market. The then Home Minister Gurung had shown that he had invested more than Rs 43.1 million in the stock market in his asset statement. In which it was mentioned that there were 30,000 ordinary shares in Hope Holdings Pvt. Ltd., 5,700 ordinary shares in Lagoom Premium Apartments
Pvt. Ltd. He had also shown his shares in Adventure Villa Pvt. Ltd. The then Home Minister Gurung had 89 tolas of gold and 6.1 million in cash in the bank, according to the property details. The investigation committee has also analyzed the amount deposited in the bank. Committee coordinator Bhandari said in an interview with BBC Nepali Service that some of the land did not appear to have come out. 'We have written what we have seen in the case of property,' he said, 'We had also studied the apartments and vehicles of Nepal, entrepreneurs Bhatta, Gurung. We have made recommendations as seen based on the evidence received from the concerned office.'
Bhandari said that the relatives mentioned in the report were also analyzed in the case of remittances. 'We have explained the entire report objectively. "We have analyzed the evidence based on where it is overwhelming," he said. "We have asked the government to make the report public. We will know everything in a few days." He did not want to talk about the conclusions and recommendations. The investigation committee was initially given a 15-day deadline. After the work was completed, the deadline was extended by five days.
