The Supreme Court (SC) has acquitted former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Motilal Bohara on corruption charges. A division bench of Justices Shardha Prasad Ghimire and Purushottam Bhandari issued the verdict on Thursday.

The Special Court on April 3, 2012 had handed down one and a half years imprisonment to Bohara convicting him of amassing Rs 2.68 million through illegal means.

A full bench of the Special Court, led by the court chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki, had slapped Bohara the jail term and a fine of Rs 2.68 million.

The court also ordered the government to confiscate cash amount worth Rs 2.68 million found to have been deposited in various banks along with those invested as share.

A bench of the same court led by then judge Bhoopdhwoj Adhikari, had in 2007 acquitted Bohara of all the charges. But later the court was ordered to review the case again after the Supreme Court pointed out some “serious legal flaws” in the acquittal order issued by Adhikari, who has been recommended for action.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in its charge sheet, filed at the Special Court on August 17, 2004, had claimed that former IGP Bohara amassed Rs 23.8 million disproportionate to his income while assuming the public post.

The charge sheet states that Bohara, who joined the Nepal Police as Sub -inspector in August 1967 and had retired in 1996, had earned Rs 43.8 million out of his which source of only Rs 20 million was known.

In November 2011, the Supreme Court had redirected the case back to the Special Court four years after receiving an appeal to the flawed verdict issued by the junior court.