PM Koirala’s exploits during life in exile catches the imagination of Indian media

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. (File photo)

A frank admission by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala of his involvement in money laundering, smuggling and plane hijacking during his political exile in India in the 1970s under the tutelage of his elder brother late B.P Koirla, the first elected prime minister of Nepal, has hogged the headlines in some of the Indian newspapers and internet news sites.

This revelation by the 84-year-old leader in prime-time slot of privately-run Kantipur Television early this month shocked many viewers in the country, but largely went unreported in the media save for few weekly newspapers. It was only few days ago that leading Indian news papers including Zeenews.com, the internet edition of India’s first privately owned satellite channel Zee TV, took up the story.

In a candid interview, a jovial looking PM Koirala admitted, to the utter shock of many, that he used to print fake Indian currency notes through the support of a Bengali while being in exile in India during the 70s. He further said he came into contact with the Bengali “through some socialist friends in India” when the Nepali Congress party ran out of funding for its activities while struggling against the one-party rule of late King Mahendra in Nepal. During that time a large number of NC party workers were in exile in India.

Koirala even said that he deposited the counterfeit currency notes in a bank.

Furthermore, seeming to be very nostalgic he even accepted that at one point, he was even involved in “gold smuggling”.

During the course of the television interview, Koirala also recalled, “Once I was told by my brother to test as to whether the people recognize the fake currency or not. Thus we drove in a car. My brother stopped the car at a gasoline station. He gave me 200 rupees. The petrol pump owner received the money and filled the tank.”

Similarly, Koirala also said that in the year 1975 he had masterminded the hijacking of the Twin Otter plane belonging to Nepal Airlines (formerly Royal Nepal Airlines) along with a team of Nepali Congress party cadres.

The small state-run aircraft was carrying NRs 3.2 million of state money to Kathmandu from Biratnagar when the hijackers mainly comprising of NC workers entered the cockpit and made the pilot divert the plane towards the Indian town of Forbesgunj. Koirala was not physically involved in the hijacking, but as he was the main architect behind it, he is said to have put the loot largely under his discernment. This however, didn’t come as a surprise as many people in Nepal were aware of his involvement in the case.

It is said that a court case is still pending in Bihar court against senior NC leader Chakra Prasad Bastola, one of the masterminds of the hijacking incident. nepalnews.com ag Jan 18 08