Rs 97 million in total graft alleged
KATHMANDU, Dec 28: In what may provide an insight into how much the Armed Police Force (APF) is plagued by corruption, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Sunday charged three former Inspector General of APF -- Basudev Oli, Sanat Kumar Basnet and Shailendra Kumar Shrestha -- for their alleged involvement in massive financial irregularities and corruption while transporting various logistics to various APF units across the country.
The investigations against the three former APF chiefs come a week after the anti-graft body started investigation against incumbent APF chief Kosh Raj Onta on corruption charges of similar nature.
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A preliminary investigation by the CIAA has found that the three former APF chiefs had allegedly embezzled over Rs 97 million by using inflated receipts and other forged documents of logistics procurement, according to CIAA officials. A press statement issued by the CIAA said that the three former APF heads had allegedly printed fake receipts of various logistics supplier firms by themselves and used them to show supply of various logistics in unusually high rates to various APF units across the country and pocketed around Rs 100 million during their tenures as APF chiefs.
Basudev Oli was head of APF from May 2006 to March 2009, Sanat Kumar Basnet was head from April 2009 to May 2011, and Shailendra Kumar Shrestha was APF chief from July 2011 to March 2012.
"Their involvement in corruption was revealed in the course of CIAA interrogation of the currently suspended APF head Onta and this has provided prima facie evidence that there have been massive corruption in APF in the past eight years," said Bhawani Subedi, press advisor to Chief Commissioner of CIAA Lok Man Singh Karki, adding, all the three former APF chiefs were involved in similar nature of corruption and irregularities like Onta.
He said that the latest investigations have given sufficient leads for further probe on various aspects of corruption in the police force.
Suspended APF AIG Onta had submitted Rs 100 million as bail to the CIAA last Monday. He is currently under investigation of the anti-graft body on the charge of embezzling over Rs 70 million in the purchase of logistics.
Along with Onta, three other top level APF officers -- DSPs Suman Jung Thapa and Ram Krishna Maharjan, and inspector Bin Bahadur Thapa -- were also suspended and are being investigated by the CIAA.
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