The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) says that it has released the frozen locker facilities of some individuals against whom it had initiated investigation for allegedly amassing properties without known sources of income.

But officials at the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said that the anti-graft body has not notified them  officially to release the locker facilities—a general practice in such situations. 

The CIAA does not have the jurisdiction to directly intervene the private sector. In the case of banks and financial institutions, the anti-graft body should go through the central bank.

On December 4, 2015, the CIAA had instructed officials of the NRB and commercials banks to freeze lockers of 29 individuals, including that of 12 former ministers, three incumbent secretaries. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara and former ministers Bidyadhar Mallik, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Chhabi Raj Pant, Shankar Koirala, Umakanta Jha, Tek Bahadur Thapa, Lharkyal Lama and former chief secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimire were among those investigated.

The commission had also called on the bankers to freeze lockers of lawmakers Geeta Rana, Ichharaj Tamang, Surendra Pandey, Rajendra Pandey if they had any.

According to the bankers, they had searched for lockers of the indicated individuals in their banks a day after they received the CIAA instruction.

CIAA Spokesperson Ganesh Raj Karki said that the anti-graft body had released the frozen lockers of some of the accused individuals by keeping records of cash and other valuables.

“We invited concerned bank and NRB representatives to become witness to the releasing of the frozen lockers,” said Karki, without divulging details.

But central bank officials said the CIAA had not informed them officially about the release of the bank lockers. “We believe the frozen lockers are still in the same state,” said a senior NRB official. “I am not sure if the CIAA had instructed

the banks directly. But doing so is beyond CIAA’s jurisdiction.”

The CIAA revelation comes at a time when the anti-graft body has been facing charges of launching investigations at the behest of its chief Lokman Singh Karki to gain financial advantage and settle a score with certain individuals.

NRB Deputy Governor Chintamani Adhikari said that he had no knowledge about the release of the frozen bank lockers. “As per the general practice, the CIAA should come through the NRB to correspond the banks,” he said.

And a senior official at a commercial bank corroborated with the NRB account, saying that they have not received any notification from the central bank to release the frozen lockers.

“Four of the 29 individuals have their lockers in our bank and they have remained frozen until now,” the official said. According to him, the CIAA had written them directly to freeze the lockers while the central bank had told them to do so verbally.