The full bench of the court led by Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Chalise decided to send Rana to Metropolitan Police Sector Office, Singha Durbar until Monday. [break]
Rana had appeared before the court early on Sunday and recorded his statement but hearings could not begin due to lack of time.
The bench has ordered the police officials to present Rana before the court on Monday for the hearings.
"The bench will then decide whether to a seek bail amount from Rana," Special Court Registrar Dhir Bahadur Chand told Republica. The bench will come up with initial decision after assessing pleading notes to be made both by government lawyers and Rana´s lawyers. Senior advocate Harihar Dahal, Basantaram Bhandari including others will plead on behalf of Rana.
Rana had appeared at the court to defend against the graft charges leveled against him by the Commission for Investigation for Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in connection with financial irregularities while designing, procuring and supplying Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) and other logistics to Nepali peacekeepers deployed in Durfar, Sudan.
Rana was police chief when the Nepal Police Headquarters for the first time decided to award multi-million rupee contract to London based Assured Risks to supply APCs and Spare parts to Nepal Police mission in Durfar.
The national anti-graft body concluded that top police officials including Rana accepted non-functional APCs and other logistics and also paid money for such logistics without checking the standards of such goods.
The CIAA has also alleged that Rana and other police officials blatantly flouted Public Procurement Act while awarding contract to supplier, accepting sub-standard APCs from contractor and releasing payment to supplier for sub-standard APCs.
On June 26, Lalitpur District Court officials had put up a summons notice at Rana´s residence in Kusunti, Lalitpur, ordering him to present himself at the court within 15 days over embezzlement charges after he refused to receive the court order insisting that he would accept it only after consulting his legal aides.
Similarly, the Special Court on Sunday also sent Superintendents of Police Bidhya Raj Shrestha and Krishna Prasad Guragain to Dillibazar jail after they failed to deposit bail amount of Rs. 1.5 million each as sought by the court.
CIAA had filed cases against 34 retired and incumbent police officers including Rana at the Special Court, accusing them of embezzling about Rs 290 million in the controversial APCs purchase deal by Nepal Police for its UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan.
Former IGPs Ramesh Chand Thakuri and Hem Bahadur Gurung including other top police officials, who have been facing graft charges over the Sudan scam, have already been released on bail a couple of days ago.
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