A meeting of a Judicial Council has been called for Wednesday afternoon after an audio recording between a Kathmandu District Court judge and a lawyer to release Ichcha Raj Tamang, a businessman who is in jail, was leaked.

News24 TV on Tuesday evening played a 10-minute audio recording between judge Raj Kumar Koirala and lawyer Rudra Pokharel, in which they are heard discussing a deal to release Tamang.

“A Judicial Council meeting has been called at 1pm to probe the audio tape,” Minister for Law and Justice Govind Sharma Bandi, who is a member of the council, told the Post. “This is a very serious issue.”

The council is chaired by acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki.

In the audio, the lawyer and the judge are heard discussing Rs20 million for them if Tamang can be released for Rs100 million.

Judge Koirala appears to be giving the consent, while he seeks assurance from lawyer Koirala if there would be the green signal from “higher-ups.”

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police had in October last year arrested Tamang, founding chairperson of Civil Cooperatives, after several complaints about embezzlement of deposits at the cooperatives registered with the police.

After an investigation for 60 days, the CIB, in December last year, filed the case at Kathmandu District Court against Tamang, who is also a former lawmaker, along with 41 others associated with the cooperative, on charges of embezzling the public money worth Rs5.59 billion.

No case has been assigned to Koirala on Wednesday after the audio tape came into the public domain.