| Naresh_karki |
Posted
on 09-Oct-02 09:56 PM
India notices Nepal King’s jumbo link with D-company
Udayan Namboodiri
New Delhi, October 09
The link between Nepal's King Gyanendra and a Dawood Ibrahim pointsman, Jamim "Jumbo" Shah, has come to the notice of New Delhi. Highly placed sources told the Hindustan Times on Wednesday that the linkage could open a Pandora's box in Indo-Nepal relations.
Intelligence sources said Shah is the man who is organising the pro-King rallies, which have become almost a daily event in Kathmandu since October 4.
It is learnt that the King received Shah hours before taking the decision to seize executive powers and dismiss the Sher Bahadur Deuba government.
"He went to the palace as a representative of the media. There were others from the Nepalese press present there.
Subsequently, he visited the palace several times and has been masterminding pro-palace demonstrations hailing the king's take-over and bearing all expenses on such events. He has also been bragging that he would get the license for satellite up-link for his cable TV company, Space Time Network (STN)," said a top official.
Sources said the links between the palace and Shah is not new. There are reliable reports that this was the man who supplied drugs to the late Crown Prince Dipendra, who, under the influence of a deadly cocktail of drugs and spirits, massacred his whole family in June 2001. The present crown prince, Paras, is also a contact for the tainted "media personality".
Among those who invested in STN is Dawood. The Karachi-based former Bombay don had used Shah's services in the past for smuggling gold, hashish and heroin into India from Nepal. Interpol has a file on this operation. In the past few months the Indian government had learnt that the duo had diverted part of the Rs 30-crore loan sanctioned to STN by a consortium of banks.
"Shah is also involved in gun running in association with another mobster called Nakim Bhai. How this character came to get free access to the palace is mysterious," the official said. "It is significant that the political parties of Nepal are totally against him and his operations."
STN's operations were ordered closed in April 2000 due to its failure to pay Rs 85 lakh to the government in income tax arrears. A year later, the government blocked STN's satellite up-link licence for its failure to procure equipment as per international standards.
Another dark truth about Shah is his alleged role in the violent demonstrations against Hrithik Roshan in Kathmandu in December 2000. Baseless rumours were spread about the Bollywood actor
Source:
http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_81943,00050002.htm
Hindustan Times
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