KATHMANDU, Aug 8: Three cases have been filed against Bharat Kumar Thapa, Mayor of Bagmati Municipality in Sarlahi, at the Sarlahi District Court. Thapa had earlier been suspended in a corruption case.
One month after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case at the Special Court, attempts were made—through a transaction-related case filed at the Sarlahi District Court—to prove that Thapa had amassed wealth through corruption. However, on Wednesday, the Special Court sentenced him to imprisonment and imposed a fine on charges of corruption. The suspended mayor now has only one option left: to appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) against the Special Court’s verdict.
The Special Court found him guilty in a case of illegal acquisition of property. After sentencing Thapa to one year in prison and imposing a fine equivalent to the amount of illicit wealth, the various loan-related cases filed at the Sarlahi District Court failed to absolve him.
On Wednesday, a bench comprising Special Court judges Tek Narayan Kunwar, Murari Babu Shrestha, and Bidur Koirala ruled that suspended Mayor Thapa had illegally acquired Rs 34,522,387. Thapa can now either appeal to the SC or accept the sentence.
Along with Thapa, Chief Administrative Officer Bimal Kumar Pokharel and Chief Engineer of the Planning Branch Sagar Paudel were also found guilty of corruption. Deputy Mayor Lila Kumari Moktan, former Accounts Officer Bishwaraj Pokharel, and then District Coordination Committee Chief Methur Chaudhary were acquitted.
The Special Court noted that Thapa's total income was Rs 9,143,100, while his expenses amounted to Rs 12,595,300. As he could not justify the origin of wealth exceeding his income by Rs 34,522,387, he was found guilty. The court sentenced him to one year in prison and imposed a fine of the same amount.
Mayor of Bagmati Municipality faces corruption charges
Thapa was also found guilty in another corruption case related to financial losses in riverbed material contracts. The court found that Bagmati Municipality had caused losses exceeding Rs 302.9 million, including value-added tax, in relation to riverbed materials. Sentencing for this case will be delivered in a separate hearing, dealing a further blow to Thapa.
Following CIAA’s filing of a case for amassing illicit wealth, Thapa himself filed a case at the Sarlahi District Court, allegedly fabricating creditors to show loans in an attempt to win the case. This was reported in Nagarik Daily on November 12, 2024.
While CIAA demanded evidence, the creditors’ claims filed in the Sarlahi District Court were initially upheld, and this evidence was submitted to the Special Court. However, on further investigation and a demand for proof by CIAA, no credible evidence could be produced.
On April 9, 2024, CIAA filed a case against Mayor Thapa and five others, accusing them of irregularities amounting to Rs 302,934,897 for extracting stones and sand from Machhapokhari (Bharat Taal) without approval from the federal government.
On the same day, another case was filed at the Special Court accusing Mayor Thapa of illegally acquiring Rs 53,353,000. A month later, Thapa filed three cases in the Sarlahi District Court claiming that he had borrowed money and failed to repay it. This raised suspicion that the cases were filed merely to fabricate evidence. One of the cases alleged Thapa had failed to repay Rs 4,050,000, but CIAA's demands for proof went unmet.
Defiance of Federal Authority
According to the CIAA’s charge sheet filed at the Special Court, Thapa also defied the authority of the federal government. Within the Sagarnath Forest Development Project area, stones, gravel, and sand (forest produce) were excavated for artificial lake construction without federal approval. A false preliminary environmental impact assessment (EIA) report was allegedly created to cover the unauthorised activity.
Additionally, the Bagmati Municipality executive prepared a project report for the lake without obtaining a master plan approval, nor approval to divert the flow of the Bagmati River for the construction of the lake within a protected forest area. The CIAA stated that the municipality caused a loss of Rs 302,934,897 through the misuse of public property.
Mayor Thapa, then Chief Administrative Officer Bimal Kumar Pokharel, Chief Engineer Sagar Paudel, then Accounts Officer Bishwaraj Pokharel, and then District Coordination Committee Chief Methur Chaudhary were suspended. All three, along with Mayor Thapa, were found guilty.
The Story of Bharat Lake
Irregularities were uncovered during the construction of Bagmati Machhapokhari I (Bharat lake), located in Wards 4 and 12 of Bagmati Municipality, Sarlahi. These involved the sale and distribution of riverbed materials such as stones, gravel, and sand excavated from the site.
A false preliminary EIA report was allegedly prepared in collusion, claiming that the excavation of riverbed materials for the unauthorised lake construction was approved under the Sagarnath Forest Development Project.
Later, the Bagmati Municipality executive prepared a detailed project report and presented the project as a multipurpose fish lake—again, without obtaining approval for a master plan or permission to use river flow. The municipality continued to extract forest produce from Machhapokhari-1 and 2 from Fiscal Year 2018/19 onwards.
A total of 4,702,085 cubic metres of riverbed materials were excavated, including bulking. Of this, 752,000 cubic metres were sold by the municipality, 750,000 cubic metres were used in the project, and 1,857,000 cubic metres were stored.
According to the charge sheet, the total accounted-for amount was only 3,359,865 cubic metres, revealing a shortfall of 1,340,419 cubic metres of riverbed materials—confirming misuse and loss.
Mayor Thapa caused losses amounting to Rs 2,680,839,980 through the unauthorised excavation of forest produce, without project or government approval. Including a 13% value-added tax of Rs 348,000,000, the total amount misused exceeded Rs 3 billion. This constitutes corruption and gross misuse of public property across federal, provincial, and local levels of government.
