Nepali Congress will continue to put pressure on the government to probe the controversial wide-body aircraft purchase deal even after the party’s planned nationwide protest on February 4, NC spokesperson Bishwo Prakash Sharma said in a statement on Wednesday.  

Noting that the NC has been raising its voice in Parliament and in public platforms about the shady aircraft procurement process, the opposition party said it was incumbent upon the government to launch a fair investigation into the shady aircraft purchase deal.

A parliamentary sub-committee has already established that more than Rs 4 billion was misappropriated during the purchase of two Airbus A-330 jets for the Nepal Airlines Corporation and implicated 34 current and erstwhile government officials, including the sitting Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari.

Also read: Probe into wide-body aircraft deal not an agenda as Congress prepares for nationwide protest

owever, the government has said that the finding of the parliamentary sub-committee is not the final authority to decide who is guilty.

A high-level commission has been set up to look into the case; but nearly a month into its formation, it has yet to start begin its work.     

The NC has also appealed the government to save the life of Dr Govinda KC, who has been staging his 16th hunger strike for the past 22 days at the Maharajgunj-based Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital demanding that the government amend the recently endorsed Medical Education Bill in line with the agreement signed with him earlier.

The bill was passed on January 25 amid protest from the NC lawmakers.

The Nepali Congress has been accusing the government of trying to cover up the aircraft purchase scam.