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Deepak Bhatta could help bring down the three stooges

One of the best 'dalal in town is in the news for getting his passport blocked and barred from traveling to foreign lands for now. He is also under investigation for money laundering and other shady acts. Deepak Bhatta is not your low-level pickpocket. He has been able to game the system and milk it for decades by paying off Deuba, Oli and Prachanda, our three stooges and hundreds of sarkari karmarcharis to bag government contracts left and right.

If this government really wants to go after Deuba, Oli and Prachanda then they should provide amnesty to our great dalal if he is willing to squeak and give all the evidence of corruption against our former Prime Ministers and many sarkari hakims. Bhatta has contacts everywhere and I wouldn't be surprised if he has close ties with the Indian intelligence agencies as well.

This man has been supplying stuff to Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force and has been involved in getting licenses for hydropower projects and evading taxes. The government thinks he has Rs 500 Karod of illegal wealth but my math tells me that he has ten times more stashed away in the Cayman Islands. Name any billion Rupees government contracts and you won't be surprised that Bhatta has been involved in 90% of such deals in the past.

It is because of people like Bhatta that honest law-abiding byaparis and business houses get a bad rap. Out of 33 big business houses, 90% of them have engaged in corruption and tax evasion and it's not because they want to, but are in some ways forced to engage in illegal acts due to our sarkari hakims and netas. If the government is transparent and no businesses have to bribe hakims and netas then the byaparis would not engage in evading taxes and other shady acts.

Some of our media and old party cadres are blaming the new government for our stock market not doing well these days. Most of the companies in NEPSE are over-valued and many of the big fish engage in insider trading and take the average investor for a ride. Our total market cap in NEPSE is not even US$ 40 billion, and many of us do not engage in the secondary market but place a few thousand Rupees in our demat account to bag any IPO if we are lucky. Then, we hope to sell our 10 kittas for like Rs 5 to 10,000 profit in the future.

Many of our publicly traded companies hide a lot of information from the pubic. And Deepak Bhatta is also accused of placing his people at SEBON and other regulatory agencies. If Bhatta is given amnesty and he really comes forward with his black book with all details of who got paid what, then this government will not have to do a lot of work when it comes to sending hundreds or even thousands of sarkari hakims and politicians to jail.

Bhatta has been under investigation for many years but it is reported that our three former Prime Ministers did their best to not allow our government agencies to go after this dalal to save their own skin. Today, we have a new government that is not afraid to go after the corrupt ones. Let us hope Bhatta can be the one to open the Pandora's box and finally, we get to send our corrupt netas to prison. If not, then it will be pretty difficult to gather much needed evidence to go after our corrupt hakims and netas.

We have middlemen and shady byaparis everywhere, be it the education, medical, transport or any other sectors. Our government is slowly taking care of business when it comes to getting rid of these dalals. Middlemen have been barred from our transport and land revenue offices. Hope, we will also get rid of those who have exploited our farmers for long and extorted from the consumers when it comes to our vegetables, fruits and other essential items.

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