Special Court Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise issued the verdict to that effect. [break]
Concluding that Thapa and one Jeevan Bista prepared and furnished fraudulent documents at the Employee´s Provident Fund and Nepal Bangladesh Bank to secure loans on the basis of a forged audit report, the court convicted them on corruption charges, invoking Clause 8 of the Corruption Control Act- 2017 BS.
Bista has already died. The court therefore didn´t slap any jail term on him. However, the bench has said that the Rs 20 million has to be recovered from Bista´s estate also.
“It has been proved that Thapa and Bista hid facts about losses at the bank and furnished fraudulent documents showing the bank was in profit. They produced false details of the bank´s financial transactions,” states the verdict.
The court has also slapped six months in jail on economic advisor to the firm Kishor Baskota, concluding that he was involved in preparing the forged audit report and financial report hiding the facts.
“Baskota is found to have developed the forged audit report. He prepared a false audit report claiming that the bank was in profit, thereby concealing facts about the bank´s losses,” reads the verdict, adding, “Baskota is found to have worked with ill intention while securing the loans. Therefore he has to serve a six-month jail term”.
The bench said the loans issued to Thapa and Bista on the basis of the forged audit report incurred a loss to the bank.
“The act of issuing loans on the basis of forged documents has incurred financial losses to the Employees´ Provident Fund and the bank while they themselves are found to have enjoyed illicit benefits,” states the verdict.
The court has acquitted Kedarnath Chalise, who was involved in assessing the project, of corruption charges. Nepal Bangladesh Bank staffers including Narendra Bhattarai, Balkrishana Sharma, Ujjal Pandey, who were also defendants in the case, have been cleared of corruption charges.
Similarly, officials at the Employees´ Provident Fund including Rajesh Rajkarnikar, Sashi Bikram Rana, Laxmi Prasad Shrestha, Bijaya Kumar Shrestha and Rabibhusan Baidhya are also acquitted of corruption charges.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed corruption charges against those who secured the loans two years ago on the basis of forged documents and those who issued the loans without assessing the documents.
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