Honorary Consul of Guinea to Nepal among those arrested on charge of gambling

KATHMU, June 2: One of the businessmen arrested on cost of playing Monday is discovered to be Honorary Consul of Guinea Republic to Nepal. 

Sources stated Ashok Kumar Agrawal, who was appointed because the Honorary consul by the federal government of Guinea Republic to Nepal in July 2017 is among the many 9 businessmen arrested in reference to the playing. All the arrested have been remed for 5 days in police custody.

The arrest of Honorary Consul Agarwal from Gangor Boutique Hotel in Kamaladi comes barely two months after one other Honorary Consul of Kyrgyzstan to Nepal Sulav Agrawal was arrested on cost of his involvement black advertising and marketing in medical gear. Agrawal can also be the Managing Director of Vishal Group

Experts say the arrest of two Honorary Consuls in reference to their involvement in unlawful actions in lower than two months has substantiated the allegations constructed from varied quarters {that a} part of businesspersons in Kathmu had grossly misused the place privileges state supplied to them to cowl up their unscrupulous actions.

An honorary consul is meant to be a reputed individual in his area with high-level political contacts within the sending states these with potential connections to facilitate high-level visits between the 2 nations promote commerce enterprise interactions. But the failure on the a part of the federal government to set eligibility standards to be honorary consuls has given rise to misuse of this provision, say consultants. 

The authorities had given a particular privilege to all honorary consuls to make use of blue quantity plated autos much like the one utilized by the members of diplomatic corps till the arrest of Sulav Agrawal in April. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) then determined to withdraw all of the privileges loved by the honorary consuls after there have been complaints that a number of businesspersons have been utilizing their place privileges to cowl up their unscrupulous actions. 

Although there isn’t a follow of permitting honorary consuls normal or consuls to make use of blue quantity plated autos much like those utilized by the members of diplomatic corps, a piece of influential honorary consuls in Nepal again in 2007 had managed to affect the federal government to permit them to train such privileges together with different diplomatic immunities.

A cupboard assembly on June 19, 2007 had accredited a proposal forwarded by MoFA to supply honorary consuls normal consuls particular car registration numbers with diplomatic privileges. The blue quantity plates given to them included the letters HCC (brief for honorary consular corps) a quantity. 

Honorary consuls again in 2007 had maintained that it had been virtually troublesome for them to hold out their official duties as a consequence of frequent normal strikes protest actions — one thing quite common in Kathmu Valley in the course of the first few years after the success of the April 2006 widespread motion.

Accordingly, the 2007 cupboard choice had clearly acknowledged that such privileges could be supplied solely inside the Kathmu Valley ‘in the interim’ one consulate could be supplied with only one such car registration quantity. Such autos should even be used particularly for official work whereas attending formal diplomatic ceremonies, as per the choice.

But within the following years, the honorary consuls not solely used their blue-plated autos for his or her private companies but additionally exterior the Kathmu Valley additionally they continued pressuring the political management to not scrap the privileges even after the political transition was over.

These privileges loved by the honorary consuls prompted a number of different businessmen, a few of them with controversial backgrounds as effectively, to safe honorary consul positions of little-known nations which have little or no interactions in any respect with Nepal. As such, the variety of honorary consuls normal consuls that Nepal hosted from varied 27 nations in 2007 has reached 51 in 2020.