The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against eight individuals, including former Madhesh provincial minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Vijay Kumar, and the incumbent mayor and deputy mayor of Bagmati Municipality in Sarlahi district.

The anti-graft body has accused them of misappropriating public property and causing damage to state resources by illegally extracting forest products and constructing fish ponds inside a protected forest area under the Sagarnath Forest Development Project.

According to the chargesheet, the accused encroached upon the Murtiya forest area inside the Sagarnath project; excavated sand, gravel, stones, and soil; and constructed ponds without legal approval or environmental assessments.

The construction, carried out under the guise of a fish farming project, was allegedly financed through unlawful use of funds from the federal and provincial governments.

The CIAA in a statement on Sunday claimed that the accused caused a financial loss and misused funds amounting to over Rs567.1 million and has demanded full recovery of the amount along with imprisonment in line with Section 17 of the Corruption Prevention Act (2002) and its 2024 amendment.

The charge sheet names Vijay Kumar, then provincial minister, as having unilaterally approved a Rs300 million grant in favour of the illegal project by signing an MoU with local authorities without necessary ministerial or legal counsel.

The CIAA states he bypassed Cabinet approval and knowingly misused his authority to approve funding for a project that had neither budgetary certainty nor legal clearance.

Also charged are Bharat Kumar Thapa, mayor of Bagmati Municipality, and Leela Kumari Muktan, the deputy mayor. Both have been suspended from office.

Other accused include Bimal Kumar Pokhrel, the then chief administrative officer; Gokul Bhujel, legal officer at the Madhesh provincial finance ministry; Niranjan Lamichhane and Sagar Paudel, engineers at the municipality; and Bishwaraj Pokhrel, then account officer at the municipality.

The commission has alleged that all accused knowingly violated forest and procurement laws, and proceeded with unauthorised construction in a nationally protected forest zone.

The illegal works also reportedly lacked a feasibility study, a master plan, environmental approval, and any formal study on fishery, while also misusing water resources from the Bagmati River without obtaining necessary permits.

“This is a clear example of institutional abuse, where multiple tiers of government colluded to exploit protected land and public money under a fake development narrative,” CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel said in the press release.