The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Monday appealed at the Supreme Court over the quantum of punishment and acquittal of former officials of BP Koirala Institute of Health Science in corruption cases.

The anti-graft body has sought bigger punishment against those who were convicted and annulling of verdict in the case of those who were acquitted by the Special Court, according to a statement issued by the CIAA on Monday.

On June 1 last year, the Special Court had convicted three former officials of the BPKIHS—Balbhadra Prasad Das, former vice-chancellor; Arbinda Kumar Sinha, former director; and Nanda Kumar Thapa, former registrar. They were sentenced to one year of imprisonment and fined Rs25,000 each.

The anti-graft body had prosecuted them on charge of financial irregularities in the purchase of various goods and equipment for the hospital such as Diagnostic Kits and Reagents (VIDAS), Diagnostic Kits and Reagents (Accent-200), High End Color Doppler System, Operating Table, EMG, Electrical Operation and Maintenance, Air Condition, Fetal Monitor Doppler and Newborn Warmer, Fully Automated Rotary Microtome and Gloves.

But the Special Court had given a clean chit to another former registrar Tul Bahadur Shrestha, account chief Dinesh Raj Dahal and deputy manager Amit Srivastav on the ground that they were not involved in procurement of goods and services and were only involved in making payment according to the decision of the institute’s central executive committee.

The court had also acquitted the suppliers, Chetan Agrawal and Umesh Kumar Agrawal, from corruption charges on the ground that they didn’t collude with officials of the hospital who were charged with corruption.

The CIAA had prosecuted all of them for causing a loss of Rs40.89 million to the institute by paying unnaturally high prices while procuring various goods.

In an appeal registered at the Supreme Court, the anti-graft body said that the quantum of punishment meted out to them was not enough. “The Special Court should have sentenced Das, Sinha and Thapa with additional punishment as per the section 24 of the Corruption Prevention Act 2002,” the statement said.

The section 24 says that if the offender is an office bearer of a constitutional organ or body to be nominated or appointed by officer belonging to the special class of Government of Nepal or officers of equivalent rank, Head, General Manager or officer of a public institution of equivalent rank, such person shall be liable to the punishment of imprisonment for a term of three years in addition to the punishment prescribed for such offence.

In the appeal, the CIAA has stated that Das was convicted for corruption in the purchase of High End Color Doppler System but Dahal, who was in the evaluation committee and one who made the payment, was not convicted.

Likewise, Shrestha, who signed a receipt generated through illegal acts, was spared by the Special Court, according to the CIAA.

Convicting one and leaving others who were involved in the same procurement process is mistaken, the CIAA has said.

Likewise, the CIAA also claimed that the suppliers were given a clean chit even though they supplied the two operating tables at more prices than estimated cost while that wasn’t done in an emergency arrangement.

According to the CIAA, then account chief Dahal should have been convicted along with Das for the procurement of an EMG machine, which was also procured at more price than the estimated cost.