Nepali Congress has said that the party is ready for an investigation on its vice-president Dhan Raj Gurung.
During a meeting held at NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba’s residence in Budhanilkantha on Wednesday, present and past office-bearers of the party discussed, among other issues, Gurung’s alleged connection to misappropriation of funds from the Lalitpur-based Miteri Cooperative.
After the meeting, NC Chief Whip Shyam Ghimire said that the party was ready to have Gurung investigated.
“We are clear on the issue regarding the vice-president; if he has done wrong, he will be punished,” Ghimire said. “But the way in which questions have been raised in Parliament alleging fake divorce, is divorce even fake? When a divorce takes place according to law, it is real.”
According to Ghimire, Gurung was found to have divorced his wife in 2019 itself.
If wrongdoing has been committed somewhere, NC is ready to have it investigated, Ghimire said.
During the House of Representatives meeting on Tuesday, Gurung also asked for a parliamentary investigation on him.
Gurung and his fugitive ex-wife Jyoti Gurung have been accused of misappropriating Rs 148.1 million of Miteri Cooperative from Mahalaxmisthan of Lalitpur.
Chairman of the cooperative Kumbha Raj Gurung testified before the parliamentary inquiry committee formed to investigate cooperative fraud that the misappropriation took place when the couple was together.
Another lawmaker requesting anonymity told Setopati that Kumbha Raj has accused Dhan Raj and his ex-wife, who was administrator at the cooperative, of misappropriating money from the cooperative. "Jyoti seems to be absconding for four-five years. Cooperative chair Kumbha Raj seems to have last contacted Jyoti two years back. Kumbha Raj has told the committee that both Dhan Raj and Jyoti had then assured to gradually settle the amount," the lawmaker added.
Kumbha Raj revealed that Jyoti didn't take loan from the cooperative and took away the deposits. He told the committee that Jyoti sent the money through one Jitendra Bhandari to Thailand and invested in bitcoins, and that he lodged a complaint with the CIB as the amount has yet to be settled.
"Kumbha Raj told the committee that he was an NC mahasamiti member and Dhan Raj offered to make him a candidate for lawmaker through the proportional representation electoral system in the last election," the lawmaker said.
Gurung, meanwhile, has expressed ignorance about misappropriation of the amount by his ex-wife Jyoti pointing that they were divorced five years back. He has claimed that Jyoti filed for divorce when he objected to her repeated Thailand visits citing office works.
He has accused Kumbha Raj of dragging him in now that Kumbha Raj will be implicated in the fraud. He has insisted that he doesn't know anything even when Setopati pointed that he had not divorced Jyoti when she misappropriated the money, and argued that he cannot be held accountable for what she did at her office.
"I cannot be held responsible for what ones does at her office. I am not even in the board of that cooperative," he has said. "I, therefore, demand that the authorities concerned must hold impartial investigation. The evidence can be destroyed. It should, therefore, be investigated in a manner that the evidence is not lost."
He has also refuted claims of Kumbha Raj that he offered the post of lawmaker saying that the latter was not of the stature to become a lawmaker. He, however, acknowledged that he has known Kumbha Raj for a long time as a party cadre and working in the association of ex-army personnel.
Some claim that Dhan Raj has divorced Jyoti only to avoid implication in the cooperative fraud and the two still live together and are raising their kids together. When Setopati asked Dhan Raj whether they have divorced only in papers he challenged to come to his home and check about that. "I don't know where she lives after divorce. She has not returned back. She should not even return. Can she defame me when she has been implicated?"
He has also claimed that Kumbha Raj complained against him after the latter looked set to be investigated.
