The Special Court has sentenced former Secretary Gajendra Thakur to 8 years and 1 month in prison after finding him guilty of corruption in the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. Three others were also convicted alongside him.

The verdict was delivered by a bench comprising Chairman Teknarayan Kunwar and members Tejnarayan Singh Rai and Muraribabu Shrestha on Monday.

According to Yagyanidhi Tiwari, the court’s information officer, the then-executive director of the project, Ramchandra Devkota, and Suryaraj Kandel, were also sentenced to 8 years and 1 month in prison. However, Shivkumar Sharma, the deputy team leader of consulting firm Eptisa BETS J/V, received a reduced sentence of 6 years due to his senior citizen status.

“The court ordered the recovery of the embezzled amounts from the convicted individuals,” Tiwari said. It demanded restitution of Rs101,061,075 from Thakur and Kandel, and Rs29,565,603 from Devkota and Sharma.

Additionally, the consulting firms Eptisa Services De Ingenieris SL and BETS Consulting Services Ltd JV were ordered to pay Rs62,193,596, while the Italian construction company CMC, found complicit in the corruption, was required to pay Rs261,106,991.

The Special Court had found the individuals guilty of corruption on September 9, with Monday’s bench announcing the sentencing.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed charges against 15 individuals, including three former secretaries, on February 18, accusing them of corruption in the Melamchi project. Consulting and construction companies were also named as defendants in the case.