Corruption Case Filed Against Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and 96 Others

KATHMANDU: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption case today at the Special Court in Kathmandu against 97 people, including then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The commission charged former Prime Minister Nepal, then Minister for Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture Dr. Minendra Prasad Rijal, and 95 others. It alleges that they committed corruption by allowing the exchange and sale, in bad faith, of public government land held under a ceiling exemption in the name of Rijal Canning and Company in Morang district.

According to CIAA spokesperson Suresh Neupane, the commission has set the amount involved at Rs 734,956,000 (Rs 73 crore 49 lakh 56 thousand) under Section 17 of the Corruption Prevention Act, 2059 (BS), and has demanded that the defendants, including then Prime Minister Nepal, pay that sum.

The case against defendants including then Minister Rijal; then Secretary of the Ministry of Land Reform and Management Chhabiraj Pant; Joint Secretary Ramesh Chandra Adhikari; and Under Secretaries Gandhi Prasad Subedi and Hupendra Mani KC also sets the amount involved at Rs 734,956,000 per person, the commission said.

Then Minister for Land Reform and Management Dambar Shrestha and then Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire were named as defendants only for the purpose of recovering the amount involved, Neupane said.

The commission has also sought confiscation of the land under Section 47 of the Corruption Prevention Act, 2059 (BS), and Section 29(Kha) of the CIAA Act, 2048 (BS), among other laws in force. Some people have been named as defendants for that purpose, it said.