By Banafsha Binesh in TOLOnews, May 15, 2023 at 8:31 PM
TOLOnews has seen documents provided as evidence of discrepancies in financial records and alleged corruption at the Afghan embassy in India.
In one of the documents, a head of an Indian company claimed that the Afghan embassy in Delhi leased him two properties of the embassy and an empty lot identified as “Chaman.”
The document indicates that on December 14, 2022, an Indian named Vivek Dixit wrote a complaint letter to the office of the Prime Minister of India complaining that he had been “cheated and made to suffer a loss” of INR 22,500,000 by the Afghan ambassador in New Delhi “in pretext to various activities like government quota, embassy, residential building on lease for commercial purpose and Afghan Culture Center.”
A representative of the “Afghans based in India,” Shams Rahman Qarizada, voiced claims about widespread corruption at the embassy.
“There are different cases against them and their team. The case of the transportation of wheat which is provided by India for the people of Afghanistan. The case of passport extension. The case of aid collecting. The case of handing over the government property in diplomatic areas for the Indian Sardars,” he said.
In one of the documents, an Afghan national complained that he had paid $5,000 to the employees of the embassy to help him receive an urgent visa, but he has not yet received the visa.
“The main reason for the cancellation of our visas and the main reason for us to be away from our education for two years is due to the poor activities of the Afghan embassy in India,” said Sayed Habibullah Qureshi, an Afghan student who won a scholarship for education in India.
But the Afghan ambassador in New Delhi, Farid Mamundzay, denied the allegations and called them “propaganda.”
“The property of the Afghan embassy in India is the property of the nation of Afghanistan and it is a major value for all of us. Any kind of deal regarding these properties and reports in this regard are destructive propagandas which is affecting Afghanistan’s position,” he said.
The political analysts said that the Afghan embassies should focus on serving the people of Afghanistan abroad.
“The Afghan embassies should be an office to help the people of Afghanistan wherever they are, it should not be a commercial center,” said Torek Farhadi, a political analyst.
“The only way to prevent corruption in the embassies abroad is to make the process electronic. Their documents should be attached with certain codes and stickers like passports and sent from the capital (Kabul),” said Noorullah Raghi, a former diplomat.
The Foreign Ministry on Saur 5 (April 25) introduced Qadershah as the Islamic Emirate’s diplomat to India.
However, Qadershah was dismissed in a letter by Mamundzay claiming Qadershah was engaging in unofficial contact with other entities.
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183374
