Two months after his resignation as home minister, Sudan Gurung has requesting that people refrain from coming to take pictures for the first two months if he becomes home minister again. This has fueled speculation about his possible return to the position.
Gurung made these remarks while addressing the Gorkha district convention of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) on Sunday.
Expressing confidence that he would be proven innocent, Gurung said, “If the committee clears me and the government reappoints me as home minister, I request that no one come to the ministry during the first two months to congratulate me or take photographs.”
Gurung resigned as home minister after questions were raised regarding the sources of his assets and share investments. Since his resignation, Prime Minister Balen Shah has kept the Home Ministry under his own jurisdiction.
The fact that no other minister was appointed to the Home Ministry – a body that oversees internal peace and security – for two months after Gurung’s resignation had raised questions about whether PM Shah intends to bring Gurung back as home minister.
When asked about the matter, some Cabinet members said that there had been no discussions on appointing another person as home minister. Some leaders of the ruling RSP also said that there has been no discussion yet on the agenda of whom to send to head the Home Ministry.
The Cabinet members and party leaders were waiting for the report of the committee formed to investigate the source of Gurung’s assets. They said that if the investigation committee gives Gurung a clean chit, there is a possibility of him returning as home minister.
The government had formed a three-member committee under the coordination of former high court judge Achyut Prasad Bhandari to investigate the source of former Gurung’s assets. The committee was tasked with submitting its report within 15 days, but the government later extended the deadline by 5 days.
The committee submitted its report to the government on Friday, although the report has not yet been made public.
Against this backdrop, Gurung’s remarks on Sunday are being viewed as significant.
Setopati spoke to two members of the committee regarding what the report contains.
According to them, the committee examined the income, expenditure, and tax payment records of the former home minister for the last 10 years. They said that after reviewing 10 years of records, "no major discrepancies" were seen in the assets in his name.
"We have submitted a 47-page report to the government," one member said. "There is no major discrepancy seen in the land and shares in his name. However, we did not have time to further investigate the gold he possesses and the loans he has taken."
According to the asset declaration Gurung submitted after becoming a minister, he had nearly 89 tolas of gold. Gurung mentioned in his property declaration that the gold was his ancestral property. Based on this, the investigation committee has also mentioned in the report that the gold is ancestral property.
"Although there are no details on when or at what price the gold was bought, it appears as ancestral property," said a member of the committee. "In our suggestions, we have written that an individual possessing such a large amount of gold could be a risk."
Furthermore, the committee has pointed out that the loans taken by Gurung were not through banking channels. The member informed that the committee recorded statements from the individuals from whom Gurung had taken the loans.
According to the committee member, although Gurung has been involved in eight organizations to date, only four of them are active.
"It appears he increased his wealth by investing in various companies and shares," said another member of the investigation committee. "There was no property found without a source, as reported in the media."
The report mentions that although Gurung bought shares of NRN Infrastructure worth 5.3 million rupees, their current market value is only 3.6 million rupees.
Similarly, the report points out that there was a difference between the actual value and the capital gains tax paid on the land he purchased in Dhankuta.
In his asset declaration, Gurung also disclosed the details of shares he owned. Among those, he showed 30,000 shares worth 3 million rupees in Hope Holdings Pvt Ltd, 57,000 shares worth 5.7 million rupees in Lagom Premium Apartment, and 70,000 shares worth 7 million rupees in Adventure Villa Pvt Ltd.
All three companies for which he disclosed full details are not listed on the Stock Exchange.
Besides that, Gurung declared that he held shares worth Rs 27.46 million in companies traded in the securities market. This is the value of companies listed on the Stock Exchange.
In his property declaration, Gurung did not specify which companies these are. Out of these shares for which he did not disclose full details, shares worth Rs 5.33 million were bought from the secondary market, while the remaining shares worth Rs 22.12 million were bought from the primary market or as founder shares.
Moreover, it has been revealed that Gurung is a shareholder in at least two micro-insurance companies – Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Insurance – which involve investments by the Shanker Group and Deepak Bhatta, who was arrested in connection with money laundering investigations.
