KATHMANDU, JUNE 8
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a charge-sheet at the Special Court against four persons, including former chief of Sunsari District Coordination Office for allegedly causing a loss of eight million rupees in revenue to the Government of Nepal and indulging in corruption.
Those indicted by the anti-graft body are former chief of Sunsari DCO Gopal Raj Bhandari, former district coordinator officer Pushkar Bhattarai, and proprietor Ram Prasad Shrestha and agent Krishna Bahadur Katuwal of Itahari-based RK Construction.
According to a press release issued by the CIAA, Bhandari had caused a loss of eight million rupees to the government on the pretext of awarding contract to RK Construction for collection of tax on export of agricultural and forest herbs in the fiscal 2018-19.
"Bhandari, in collusion with his subordinate staff, awarded the contract to RK Construction without receiving security bond and entered into an agreement for herbs collection against the prevailing law. Moreover, he did not deposit the collected tax into the consolidated fund and embezzled the revenue amount," read the press release. It is found that Bhandari and the officials of RK Construction had concluded the contract in a premeditated manner to embezzle revenue and share the amount.
District coordination officer Bhattarai and agent of RK Construction Katuwal were also equally responsible for embezzling government revenue.
All the defendants have been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act-2002.
The CIAA informed that it had demanded maximum punishment against them. If convicted, each of them will be liable to jail sentence along with recovery of eight million rupees and a fine equivalent to the amount in question each.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
