KATHMANDU, August 14: The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) has stood against the demand put forth by the main opposition party as well as a section of its own lawmakers to form a high-level judicial committee to investigate the infamous 100 kg gold smuggling case.
A Parliamentary Party (PP) meeting of the NC that concluded on Monday after a deliberation on various issues for the past three days decided that the case will be investigated by the state agencies concerned. The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is currently investigating the case after the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) sought its help.
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The decision of NC not to stand in favor of forming a high-level judicial committee to investigate the gold smuggling case comes amid the repeated obstruction of federal parliament by the main opposition party, CPN-UML, to form such a commission. The party has maintained that CIB cannot independently investigate the case as it is under the influence of the government.
Arguing that the CIB and DRI cannot take statements from the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister in such cases, several NC lawmakers had argued that the party should stand in favor of the formation of a high-level committee or a judicial committee to investigate the case. However, the PP meeting decided that state agencies should be allowed to do their work as they are competent enough to deal with those cases. The party also maintained that there is no need to form any such committee.
"In order to investigate cases including gold, we have requested the government to conduct an independent, impartial and in-depth investigation and prosecute whoever is involved," said NC Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak after the meeting. “We want the government agencies to take this issue seriously and conclude with transparency.”
