Ex-minister among 14 people dragged to court in graft case
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Monday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 14 persons, including former minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Badri Prasad Neupane, on charge of irregularities worth Rs315.21 million while leasing out land to Fun Park, a children’s amusement park at Brikutimandap.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Monday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 14 persons, including former minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Badri Prasad Neupane, on charge of irregularities worth Rs315.21 million while leasing out land to Fun Park, a children’s amusement park at Brikutimandap.
The Fun Park which covers 60 ropanies of land is owned by the Social Welfare Council, the regulatory body of the non-government organisations.
The board of the council headed by erstwhile minister Neupane on July 30, 2012 had decided to lease the land without competitive bidding, causing a loss of Rs315.21 million to the council, the CIAA has said in its chargesheet.
Neupane was representing the Chure Bhawar Ekta Party which later merged with the then CPN-UML.
Other defendants in the case are Pramod Mehata, immediate vice-chairman of council; Kunja Bihari Prasad Chaudhary, immediate treasurer; Rabindra Kumar, immediate member secretary; board members Mohan Raj Sharma, Madan Kumar Lal Karna and Hari Neupane; Fun Park operators Tek Bahadur Gurung and Rabindra Gurung.
The CIAA has sought recovery of the amount from Badri Prasad Neupane, Mehata, Chaudhary, Kumar, Sharma, Karna and Hari Neupane as well as a jail term of up to 10 years each as per Section 3 of the Corruption Prevention Act.
In the case of Badri Prasad Neupane, Mehata, Chaudhary and Kumar, the anti-graft watchdog has demanded an additional prison term of three years under Section 24 of the Act.
As for the Fun Park operators, the CIAA has sought prison term of up to two years, confiscation of the amount of irregularities as well as fine equivalent to the amount embezzled under Section 8(4) of the law.
Other defendants in the case are Ratna Gahamagar, another treasurer at the time; Madan Prasad Rimal, immediate director of the council; Bal Bahdur Swar, immediate deputy director; Prem Singh Dhami and Jagadev Chaudhary, immediate legal advisors.
The CIAA has sought one year jail term and fine up to Rs50,000 against each of them for preparing the report with malafide intention.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
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