The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Thursday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 16 individuals and two companies, seeking over Rs3.21 billion in damages in connection with the procurement of Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs) for the Nepal Telecommunications Authority.

The accused include Nepali Congress lawmaker and former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and former Law Secretary Dhanaraj Gyawali.

Also named in the case are the then chairpersons of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal; then members Dhanaraj Gyawali and Tikaprasad Upreti; directors Bijay Kumar Ray, Surendralal Hada and Dipesh Acharya; then deputy directors Rewati Ram Panta, Suresh Basnet, Harinya Prasad Bastakoti, Achyutananda Mishra and Sanjeev Adhikari.

CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel said corruption charges have also been filed against consulting firm Vannerise Solutions (SAL Offshore) and its CEO Jamal Anouti, and its local agent Connection Trade Link Pvt Ltd, along with its chairman Dilip Kumar Gurung and Director Tej Prasad Kharel.

The CIAA has demanded compensation of Rs3.21 billion from each defendant for causing losses to the state coffers through the misuse of public resources.

Meanwhile, the CIAA concluded that no cases would be filed against Nepali Congress lawmaker Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, UML lawmaker Gokul Baskota, and former chief secretary Baikuntha Aryal, who were also linked to the case.

Teramocs is a technology conceptualised for the lawful interception and domestic voice/data traffic monitoring with fraud detection and control over the network of telecom service operators, who are providing telecom and internet services to the public.

The NTA said that the technology was bought to monitor whether the service providers are charging customers fees as per the rule and delivering quality service to customers.

In December 2023, the Public Accounts Committee under the House of Representatives asked the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to investigate the procurement suspecting irregularities in the procurement.