The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Monday filed a case at the Special Court against eight individuals, including former vice-chancellor of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, on charges of irregularities during procurement of various equipment for the university.

Less than two weeks after a corruption case was filed against 10 Tribhuvan University officials on the charge of altering recruitment test scores to benefit their relatives, senior officials of another university have been charged of corruption— exposing anomalies in the country’s education sector.

The defendants in the latest case are— Balbhadra Prasad Das, former vice-chancellor of the university; Arbindra Kumar Sinha, former director of the academy hospital; Nanda Kumar Thapa, former registrar; and Tul Bahadur Shrestha, current registrar.

Dinesh Raj Dahal, account chief; Amit Shreevastav, deputy manager; Chetan Agrawal, proprietor of Proseason Medical Private Limited; and Umesh Agrawal, proprietor of Surgicame Distributor have also been charged.The anti-graft body said in a statement that irregularities were found while investigating the procurements made by the university on different dates.

Former vice-chancellor Das has been charged of irregularities amounting to Rs40.8 million for not awarding contract to the lowest bidder without justification. Sinha, Thapa and Shrestha have been accused of misappropriating to Rs Rs37.53 million, Rs19.6 million and Rs5.67 respectively.

The CIAA has sought a penalty for the accused under Section 8 (1) of Corruption Prevention Act-2002, which has the provision of maximum prison term of three years, confiscation of misappropriated amount and a fine equivalent to the embezzled sum.

For the accused high level officials, the anti-graft body has also prescribed a penalty under Section 24 of the Act, which has the provision of additional three years of prison term for officials holding rank of special class and above. Dahal, account chief, and Shreevastav, deputy manager, have been accused of colluding with the senior officials while evaluating the bids and awarding the contracts. The duo, according to the CIAA, committed irregularities amounting to Rs23.48 million and Rs17.41 million.

They have been charged under Section 8 (1) of the Act.The equipment suppliers, Chetan and Umesh, have been accused of irregularities amounting to Rs 10.4 million and Rs 6.03 million respectively. They have been charged under Section 8 (4) of the Act, which has the of prison sentence up to two years, confiscation of misappropriated amount and a fine equivalent to the embezzled sum.

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