Kathmandu, June 10:

A Maoist leader today said that the Young Communist League (YCL) will lay bare a racket of top-notch criminals soon.

“The YCL will soon expose another racket of smugglers, bank defaulters and criminals, who have been operating under the protection of top leaders,” Dinanath Sharma said at the Reporters’ Club. Sharma refused to name the “criminals”, saying the YCL will do it only after the CPN-Maoist presents the name list at the eight-party meeting and sanctions support from the eight parties for the move. Criminal activities are on the rise in the capital because political leadership and the state have been protecting smugglers and other criminals, he said.

“The reaction of the leaders on actions of the YCL has disappointed us. We could not believe that top leaders could be so critical of the youth league right after it started helping police arrest someone, who had been sheltered by leaders.” He said the leaders flayed the YCL after it handed over Sitaram Prasai, a bank defaulter, to the police.

“What wrong did the YCL do by handing over Sitaram Prasai to police? As we all know, the Nepal Rastra Bank had been seeking his arrest for years.”

Sharma claimed that the general public supports the activities of the YCL, though a handful of political leaders seem to be annoyed by the outfit.

“People in general have been appreciating recent activities of the YCL. It is a pity that some leaders are making a hue and cry just because they cannot help smugglers and cheaters anymore.” Some leaders have been calling for a ban on the YCL because they will be able to help criminals once the move is taken, Sharma said, adding, “But this is not going to happen”.