KATHMANDU: On March 13, a taxi driver stopped his taxi in front of a hotel operated by a Chinese businessman at Jyatha Galli of Thamel.

No sooner had the taxi driver parked his taxi, a group of Chinese people led by a Chinese businessman, Wang Yun Peng, brutally attacked him with local weapons and swords.

Peng, the operator of the Thamel-based Chyaling Pavilion Hotel and Ching Pinguaan Hotel, has been alleged of being the main person involved in manhandling, misbehaving and threatening Nepali businessmen, and not paying rent to the landlords as promised.

Impatient with the regular misbehavior of the Chinese businessmen in Thamel for years, locals and pedestrians then retaliated in unison. Police from the Durbarmarg-based police circle reached the incident site quite after a long time and initiated a search for the Chinese businessmen.

Locals informed only some media about the incident as the locals have the impression that most of the media prefer not to give coverage to anti-China news. Even the media were told by ‘high-level police officials’ to conceal the incident arguing that bringing the incident to the fore would tarnish China’s image in Nepal. Police even released the Chinese businessmen soon after the arrest to normalize the situation as if nothing serious had happened.

Peng, who has maintained a smooth relation with some high-level Nepali police officials, businessmen and some Nepali political leaders, drives a left-hand steering car — bearing Chinese registration number A5U 685. Police do not bother to stop and ask him despite all this. Meanwhile, despite being aware of the fact that he imported the car from the Kerung border entry-point in April 2019, police seem to be again least bothered.

Keshav Adhikari, former DIG of Nepal Police deems it necessary to maintain transparency on who is detained on what allegation. “When the transparency is not maintained, suspicion gets a chance to peep in,” he said, adding, “Although the police have to maintain confidentiality during investigation procedure, it should release the facts related to the incident.”

“Although it’s good to encourage for reconciliation or arbitration, dismissal of criminal cases is against law.”

Thamel case is one example of how the police have been ignoring or covering the criminal activities carried out by Chinese people in Nepal.

This incident reveals both the lack of transparency of Nepal Police particularly in the incidents related to Chinese criminals.

In such cases, the police are found settling the cases informally. They reach the incident site only after the protest of the local people. They reach the incident site but settle the case without registering formally.

However, the police personnel do not confess the fact that they are settling the case informally.

SSP Umesh Raj Joshi, the joint spokesperson of Nepal Police tells that the police always deal with the issues irrespective of nationality. “Although it’s not unnatural to encourage informal settlement in  general incident, we always investigate as per the legal provisions,” he said.

When the Chinese citizens working in Nyadi Hydropower, Lamjung disobeyed the lockdown and imported construction materials on March 30, the locals protested against it fearing it could stimulate corona transmission in the area.

Instead of respecting the public feelings and abiding by Nepal’s law, the Chinese attacked the locals with knives.

The annoyed locals then protested against the Chinese intruders. When the locals demanded the attackers to be sued, instead of arresting the guilty ones, the police pacified the locals and dismissed the case.

Senior advocate and Human Right Activist Dinesh Tripathi says settling such cases which attract provisions of criminal law illegal and against both the national and international practice.

Besides, many incidents related to the involvement of the Chinese national are either ignored or dismissed. Chinese are said to be behind the black marketing of the masks and other essential health materials here.

Kaski police arrested Qain Zhou, 47, a Chinese national while selling a mask costing Rs four at Rs 30 in Baidam Pokhara on March 28.

The District Administration Office Kaski released her the next day without further investigation.

Similarly, Metropolitan Crime Division arrested a Chinese national in entrepreneur guise for black racketeering on March 18 in Thamel.

Fearing it might impact the Chinese image adversely in Nepal, the police did not hail it necessary to formally book the culprit.

However, SSP Sahakul Thapa of Metropolitan Police Crime Division claims that the police have not been discriminating in terms of nationality. “Although reconciliation is common in most of the civil cases, we have been pursuing the guilty as per the nature of the case,” SSP Thapa said, “Nepal police do not discriminate in terms of nationality of the culprit.”

The fragile monitoring of the Chinese criminals and the trend of dismissing the issues related to Chinese nationals have so encouraged the criminals of Chinese origin that they have started regarding Kathmandu as their safe haven.

Lately, the Chinese have become so aggressive that they have started physical assault against Nepali civilians.

Remarkably enough, Nepal police have, on some occasions, dismissed the criminal cases with the involvement of the Chinese national at the request of the Chinese Embassy.

Former DIG Hemanta Malla thinks it an everyday practice to encourage reconciliation in ordinary dispute cases provided both parties of dispute request so.

“However, in criminal offenses which have larger impacts, dismissal of the case or reconciliation by police is against law,” Malla says further.