A Special Court bench led by Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and including Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalie sought the bail from Rana following preliminary hearings in graft charges involving him.[break]
"Rana was not only involved in initially planning the procurement process for armored personnel carriers (APCs)," reads the court order, adding, "He is also found to have bizarrely amended the contract agreement eight times to make it easy for the contractor to procure sub-standard APCs and such logistics, out of ill intention."
The bench concluded that Rana had amended the contract with Shambhu Bharati, local agent of London-based Assured Risks Pvt. Ltd. that supplied APCs and other logistics for Nepali peacekeepers in Sudan.
"Rana awarded the contract to Bharati with mala fide intent and inked a deal on September 27, 2007 stating that payment will be made only after inspecting the APCs," reads the order, "They initially agreed that the APCs should meet ISO standards but scrapped such provisions in later amendments."
The court said police officials under Rana amended the contract paper on June 12, 2008, stating that payment can be made without inspecting the standard of the APCs.
"All payments were made possible under Rana´s tenure because of the contract amendment," the bench said.
The contract also shows that police officials and contractor Bharati initially agreed to procure APCs from India, China, America, Canada or the UK. "But later, they amended the provisions and allowed procurement of APCs manufactured in Czechoslavakia," states the order.
According to the initial conclusion of the Special Court, Rana endorsed documents to invest nearly Rs 140 million ($ 3,646,704) for procuring APCs, indorsed another document to spend $ 725, 067 to procure spares and yet another document to release $ 73,534 for insurance.
Pleading for Rana, Senior Advocate Harihar Dahal asked the bench not to seek a huge amount in bail as Rana doesn´t possess much property.
"Rana cannot deposit the bail through bank guarantee," said Dahal, adding, "He can deposit bail only if the bench seeks a low bail amount."
After Dahal´s plea, Special Court Chairman Karki raised key questions concerning Rana´s involvement in the graft charges. Senior Advocate Basantaram Bhandari and lawyers Raman Shrestha and Hira Regmi pleaded for Rana while Tej Narayan Paudel, Yadunath Sharma and Resham Acharya had pleaded for the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
The CIAA had filed cases at the SC against 34 police officials including Rana accusing them of embezzling about Rs 290 million while procuring non-functional APCs and other logistics.
Meanwhile, the Special Court sent suspended DIG Topendrada Hamal, former DIG Deepak Shrestha and suspended SP Sanjaya Singh Basnet to judicial custody as hearings in charges involving them couldn´t take place Monday for lack of time.
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