The Special Court on Friday convicted Gopal Bahadur Khadka, the former managing director of the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation, for amassing property worth millions of rupees, illegally. Passing the verdict in a graft case brought by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, a full bench of the court sentenced Khadka to 15 months in prison, in addition to levying a Rs91.91 million fine and ordering the confiscation of his property equal to the fine amount.

The bench of the court’s chairperson Shree Kant Poudel and members Shalikram Koirala and Khusi Prasad Tharu also found that Khadka had kept properties in the name of his wife and another individual.

“The court has directed confiscation of properties registered in the name of his wife Sharmila and Anita Lama,” Dipendra Nath Yogi, the court spokesman, told the Post.

The constitutional anti-graft body in January 2019 had filed a corruption case at the court against Khadka, charging him with illegally amassing property worth Rs186.6 million.

Khadka was sacked from his post on September 18, 2017 after five parliamentary committees and the Ministry of Supplies during their investigations found his involvement in irregularities while buying land plots in four districts for building oil storage facilities.

The commission in its charge sheet had claimed that Khadka had not only amassed properties illegally, but also hidden property worth more than Rs70 million in the names of other people.

As per the commission’s charge sheet, Khadka was found hiding the illegally amassed properties in the name of his wife—Sharmila and Lama. Property worth Rs75.47 million was hidden in the name of Lama. A house at CG Hills Housing at Hattigauda area, eight aana (2,738 square feet) land at Budhanilkantha, a Hyundai Tucson car, and an amount paid to purchase a house developed by CG Developers, were hidden in the name of Lama.

Khadka has been a controversial figure in that he has been named in a number of irregularities at different offices where he worked during his career in public service.

He was accused of colluding with property brokers to purchase lands for the oil monopoly in Jhapa, Sarlahi, Chitwan and Rupandehi districts at prices three to four times higher than the market rates.

Similarly, Nepal Oil under Khadka’s leadership had also allowed 17 cooking gas bottling plants to expand their branches, going against the corporation’s commitment of merging the plants to make the sector more systematic. He had also allowed the blacklisted company, Birat Petroleum, to import fuel while releasing Rs180 million in the company’s name.

Khadka was also accused of being involved in a number of irregularities when he was the head of the Division Road Office, Kathmandu. An audit conducted by the Office of Auditor General had found that the office, under Khadka’s leadership, had made payment to contractors for using new stones and construction materials without calculating the use of the existing construction materials. A probe panel led by the then secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Jaya Mukunda Khanal had also pointed out irregularities at the Division Road Office, Kathmandu, and recommended additional probe and action against the culprits.