The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Sunday filed a charge-sheet against 17 persons including 10 former staffers of the Itahari Transport Management Office at the Special Court for embezzling millions of rupees meant for government revenue.

Each of them has been accused of pocketing from Rs45,461 to Rs59.49 million.

This is the third time that the same transport officials face corruption charges, for similar offence, according to the anti-graft body.

“Corruption cases were filed against 17 people on Sunday as government revenue was embezzled in collusion between the government employees and those of Focus One Nepal, which provided the ‘vehicle registration system’ software to the transport office,” said Pradeep Koirala, spokesperson for the anti-graft body.

They were charged with embezzling revenue over five months in 2017, according to the commission.

The government staffers charged with corruption include former chiefs of the transport office—Nayaraj Nepal, Tirtha Raj Lamsal, Gopal Thapaliya, Bhupendra Rai—outgoing account officer Tikaram Adhikari, former accountants Suresh Adhikari, Rudra Prasad Dahal, Arjun Bhattarai and Krishna Prasad kattel, and computer operator Sujan Rai.

They have been charged as per Section 7 (C) of the Corruption Prevention Act-2002, as per which the embezzled amount is confiscated and its double fined.

As the amount embezzled by them ranges from Rs2.2 million to Rs37.24 million, they are liable to jail terms of two-and-a-half to 10 years, according to the law.

Computer operators from Focus One Nepal including Rakesh Roshan Mashrangi Magar, Ramesh Poudel, Bhumiraj Adhikari, Hari Madan Dhungel, Dipendra Kumar Mandal, Maiya Kumari Chapagain and Rabin Kumar Bishwas have also been charged with corruption. They are charged with embezzling revenue ranging from Rs45,461 to Rs59.49 million in collusion with the government staff.

Commission spokesperson Koirala said their investigation so far has not confirmed the involvement of senior management staff of the private company in the corruption. “But, its staff were found to be involved in pocketing the government revenue in collusion with the government staff,” he said.

The watchdog has sought penalty against them as per Section 8 (4) of the Corruption Prevention Act. According to the law, they are subject to imprisonment of up to two years, seizure of the embezzled money and fines equivalent to the amount.

Naya Raj Nepal, Tikaram Adhikari, Suresh Adhikari and Rudra Prasad Dahal had faced corruption charges in June 2017 for embezzling government revenue amounting to Rs 612.12 million.

The anti-graft body had filed corruption cases against eight staffers of the Itahari Transport Office including the four individuals for misappropriating the revenue between mid-July 2014 and mid-February 2017.

Suresh Adhikari, along with the four other officials, had faced another corruption case in November 2017 for embezzling up to Rs 89.61 million between fiscal years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The cases show that revenue had been embezzled for five years without check. The anti-graft body in May last year filed separate cases against Suresh Adhikari for illegally amassing property worth Rs51.03 million.

According to the commission’s charge sheet, Adhikari had four wives—Durga Adhikari, Deepa Shrestha Adhikari, Susmita Adhikari and Som Maya Shrestha, who are also defendants in the case filed in May last year.