The panel headed by party standing committee member Amik Serchan was formed after a group of leaders led by State Minister for Physical Planning and Works Devi Khadka submitted a memorandum to the party central office on Friday demanding disciplinary action against Minister for Information and Communication Agni Sapkota for “conspiring” to incriminate her husband Raj Kumar Shrestha in the illegal trade. [break]
Party Standing Committee members Barshaman Pun and Dinanath Sharma are other members of the panel that will submit its report to the party leadership within seven days.
The group led by Khadka, which is close to Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai, has accused Sapkota, who is close to party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, of running a red sandalwood “smuggling racket” and using the name of Shrestha, who is also a lawmaker from the UCPN (Maoist), to “pressurize the police to let the illegal business go unchecked”.
Acting on a tip-off, police had seized 1453kg of red sandalwood from Tatopani VDC of Sindhupalchowk on July 2. “When we found Sapkota defaming Shrestha, we collected information about the sandalwood storage in the village in Sindhupalchowk and informed the police,” said a leader from the group.
Shrestha said the party should immediately take action against Sapkota. “The party should either take action against Sapkota or me. We will wait for the panel´s report and chart out our plan of action accordingly,” Shrestha told Republica.
Shrestha has also accused Sapkota of spreading the rumor that he was arrested by the police while gambling in a casino in Kathmandu. “You know about our party´s situation. These rumors are a result of line struggle in the party,” he said.
As internal factionalism intensifies, members of the rival factions of the party have been openly accusing each other of doing illegal business and violating the party disciplines, and fighting in the public.
Minister Sapkota could not be reached out for comments. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has banned the trade in the red sandalwood.
There are widespread media reports that the Maoists are involved in the smuggling of red sandalwood that fetches handsome income for leaders.
The precious wood is smuggled from South India to Tibet via Nepali territory. Various groups get involved in the smuggling of sandalwood.
According to the police, the first group transports the wood from South India to Nepal-India border, the second group transports it to Kathmandu, the third group from Kathmandu to Tatopani on the Nepal-China border and the fourth group sells it in Tibet. It is said that each kg of red sandalwood costs Rs 9,000 in Tibet.
The red sandalwood has religious and medicinal values and is also used in making perfumes.
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