Walking the talk on graft

So it is welcome news that the Department of Money Laundering Investigation has filed five separate cases at the Special Court against the most notorious of Kathmandu’s gangsters – Lama, Deepak Manange, Abhishek Giri, Milan Chakre and Parsuram Basnet. Unsurprisingly, all of them have well-established connections to political parties. Lama is a Central Committee member of the Gachhadar-led Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (Loktantrik) while the CPN-UML is patron to Chakre and Basnet. Manange, meanwhile, is affiliated with the fringe Federal Democratic Party, and Giri with the NC. While Chakre was jailed in 2009, possibly because of a falling out with his benefactors, the others have managed to circumvent the law and escape prosecution.

After all the criticism the interim government received for the appointment of Lokman Singh Karki as the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the filing of the money laundering cases, allegedly spearheaded by Home Minister Madhav Ghimire, could be a step towards regaining some public trust. These thugs have been under investigation for the last few years but previous party-led governments had repeatedly foiled attempts to bring them to book. Perhaps it is because this government is led by technocrats and thus, not overtly beholden to any party or outfit, that the investigation has reached the courts. However, it is too early to heap praise on the government and Minister Ghimire. The minister’s commitment to the rule of law can only be evaluated once the criminals are actually prosecuted and placed behind bars. We hope that the current move will not turn out to be a stunt orchestrated simply for public consumption, or, worse, a political witchhunt against non-Maoist parties. And that it in fact reflects real commitment to law and order and a pledge to right a historical wrong.