KATHMANDU, June 9: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against five individuals, including the former chairman of Nepal Bank Limited, Dr Chandra Bahadur Adhikari, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.9 million to facilitate the approval of a commercial loan worth Rs 1.75 billion by involving an Indian national as a middleman.
According to the charge sheet filed Monday at the Special Court in Kathmandu, Dr Adhikari promised to assist in the loan process for a hotel project in Rupandehi and demanded a bribe from the businessman.
The loan process was underway for Rs 1.77 billion from Nepal Bank for the Radisson Hotel project to be operated by ‘Bhusal Hospitality’ in Siddharthanagar-1, Belahiya, Rupandehi.
Nepal Telecom former MD Adhikari revealed to have accepted brib...
The CIAA stated that during this process, Dr Adhikari maintained continuous contact via WhatsApp with Bhusal Hospitality’s chairman, Balkrishna Bhusal, and his son Ankit.
Claiming to facilitate the loan, Dr Adhikari, in collusion with an Indian citizen named ‘Lucky’ (real name Khusnasib Ansari) demanded a bribe. After the demand on September 15, 2024 , the Bhusal side provided the money in two installments.
The first installment was a check worth Rs 700,000. The remaining Rs 1.2 million was transferred from Amrit Bhusal’s account at Everest Bank to the account of a company named ‘Ananya Enterprises’ at Citizens Bank. The entire Rs 1.9 million collected through different means was routed to Dr Adhikari via the middleman Ansari, CIAA’s investigation revealed.
On January 7, 2025, the CIAA raided Dr Adhikari’s residence and recovered evidence confirming the bribery transaction. The confiscated documents included details of the bribe checks and records of the transferred amounts.
The commission has demanded action against all five accused under the Anti-Corruption Act for their involvement in the bribery.
