The Department of Passports has concluded that the passport of Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai cannot be canceled.
On May 12, the District Police Office, Kaski, had written to the DoP to suspend or cancel Rai’s passport.
But the DoP has concluded that Rai’s passport cannot be suspended or canceled as there is no provision for canceling a passport for cooperative fraud in the Passport Act, 2019, according to DoP Director and Spokesperson Ramesh Kumar Charmakar.
Charmakar said that they were exploring other possible options.
The District Police Office, Kaski, had filed an application at the Kaski District Court seeking cancelation of Rai’s passport. But a bench of Judge Hari Prasad Koirala refused to cancel Rai’s passport on May 12 stating that the provision in Section 12 of the Passport Act is not related to cases of cooperative-related offenses.
Section 12 (1) (b) of the Act states that a passport may not be issued or may be withheld in the name of a person “upon receipt of an order of the Court not to issue a passport or to withhold a passport in a case sub judice in the court on the charge of offense related to passport, immigration, corruption, money laundering, human trafficking, abduction, narcotic drugs, illegal transaction of arms and ammunition, organized crime or terrorism”.
A diffusion notice against Rai has already been issued through Interpol, but he has not been arrested yet.
The government claims that it has been making efforts through diplomatic channels to arrest him.
Inspector General of Police Basanta Kunwar had said that Rai was in Malaysia. Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane had then held a phone conversation with Malaysia’s home minister.
According to police, it is difficult to arrest Rai as Nepal has no extradition treaty with Malaysia. Police had, therefore, applied for suspension or cancelation of his passport according to Section 12 and Section 15 of the Passport Act.
According to Section 12 (1) (d) of the Passport Act, a passport may not be issued or may be withheld in the name of the a person if the person has been blacklisted upon default of payment of the loan of a bank or financial institution.
Similarly, Section 15 of the Act has provisions for canceling a passport.
Rai was the chairman of Suryadarshan Savings and Credit Cooperative and promoter of Galaxy 4K. He has been accused of involvement in embezzlement of funds amounting to billions of rupees from various cooperatives.
