The Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority on Tuesday filed a graft case against 19 people including a Lumbini provincial assembly member.

The anti-graft body filed the chargesheet against the provincial assembly member from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Janaki Prasad Yadav and the then Kapilvastu District forest officer Krishna Dutta Bhatta among others.

They have been accused of embezzling revenues of the Kapilvastu-based Gautam Buddha Community Forest Users Group in the fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-2020.

According to Dhan Bahadur Karki, spokesperson of the Special Court, the case was filed demanding recovery of Rs2.9 million allegedly embezzled by them.

Yadav was elected from Kapilvastu-3(2) in the 2022 elections. He was Minister for Industry, Tourism and Transport Management during UML’s Leela Giri’s stint as Lumbini chief minister.

Earlier, Yadav was elected chief of Bijaynagar Rural Municipality from the Janata Samajbadi Party.