US embassy cable - 03KATHMANDU1649

S E C R E T KATHMANDU 001649 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY 
NEW DELHI FOR POL AND LEGATT 
NSC FOR MILLARD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2013 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, IN, UK, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  FURTHER INFORMATION ON MAOIST LEADER 
CAPTURED IN INDIA 
 
REF: KATHMANDU 1638 
 
Classified By: AMB. MICHAEL E. MALINOWSKI.  REASON:  1.5 (B,D). 
 
1.  (C) In an informal discussion with the Ambassador on 
August 27, Indian Ambassador Shyam Saran and British 
Ambassador Keith Bloomfield provided further details on the 
August 20 arrest of Nepali Maoist Chandra Gajurel in Chennai. 
 According to Ambassador Bloomfield, Gajurel was traveling on 
a fraudulent British passport that had been issued in Paris. 
Indian immigration officials were suspicious of the 
authenticity of the passport.  (Their suspicions were also 
piqued by Gajurel's statement that he had never been to 
Paris.)  Gajurel told Indian immigration officials that he 
was traveling to the UK to meet British political parties and 
members of the expatriate Nepali community.  Also found in 
Gajurel's possession was the return half of a round-trip 
ticket from London to the Gulf to Dhaka.  By chance, a 
British consular official happened to be at the airport at 
the time and verified that the passport was fraudulent. 
 
2.  (S) The Indian Ambassador reported that Indian 
authorities had been keeping Gajurel under surveillance for 
some time before his arrest.  Both the British and Indian 
Ambassadors speculated that Gajurel might be going to London 
in order to collect money from Maoist extortion rings and 
from sympathizers.  The Indian Ambassador also suggested that 
he might have been planning to attend a Revolutionary 
International Movement (RIM) meeting in London.  Neither 
Ambassador reported any evidence that Gajurel may have been 
attempting to meet King Gyanendra (currently visiting London) 
or a member of his entourage, although the Indian Ambassador 
referred several times to "rumors" that that might be the 
case.  Noting the rumored presence of Maoist leader 
Prachanda's brother in the UK, Saran alluded to reports 
suggesting that Mohan Vaidya, another top-ranking Politburo 
member, is also currently in London. 
 
3.  (C)  In an August 28 meeting with the Ambassador, Palace 
confidant Prabhakar Rana claimed that there was no substance 
to rumors that Gajurel was to meet either the King or a 
member of his party.  Rana said that he would be making the 
same point to the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi later 
in the week. 
 
4.  (S)  Comment:  We expect that despite denials from both 
the Palace and the British, rumors will continue to 
reverberate that the Palace, perhaps abetted by the British 
government, was moving to arrange a surreptitious meeting--or 
that perhaps the British government was independently 
attempting to arrange or contrive such a meeting--between the 
King or a member of his party and senior Maoist leaders. 
Unfortunately, such rumors will only reinforce unwarranted 
suspicions among some political parties that the Palace and 
the Maoists are in collusion.   If it is true that Mohan 
Vaidya, who is among the top four in the Maoist Politburo, 
and/or Prachanda's brother is in the UK, we would hope that 
they would soon be secured by British authorities. 
MALINOWSKI