The Special Court on Thursday convicted two former officials of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and a travel entrepreneur on corruption charges and sentenced them to seven years in jail. The court, however, gave clean-chit to 20 others in the corruption case.

A division bench of Justices including Special Court Chairman Baburam Regmi convicted former officiating Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NTB Subash Niraula, former NTB Finance Chief Anil Das and travel entrepreneur Mahendra Khanal on corruption charges. They were found guilty of embezzling Rs 346 million by abusing authority.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on April 3, 2015 had filed a charge-sheet at the Special Court against 23 employees associated with the NTB including two former government secretaries and one incumbent secretary for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities at the NTB.

They were charged with indulging in corruption under different headings including submitting fake bills of office expenditures, causing additional burden on the Board of Directors and receiving the payment bill of beverage from the Board.