KATHMANDU, Oct 24: Former officials of the Tax Clearance Commission, Chudamani Sharma and Lumbadhoj Mahat, who have been facing corruption allegation at the Special Court, have received the court summons after repeated attempts to face the charges.
“Sharma received the summon order today and Khadka received it some days ago after repeated attempts,” Bhim Kumar Shrestha, registrar at the Special Court, told Republica. According to Shrestha, the court officials failed to serve the notices before Dashain as they couldn't find the addresses. The notice was forwarded to Sharma again after Tihar. Khadka had received the notice on October 9.
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“Another member Umesh Prasad Dhakal has not received the court notice yet,” Registrar Shrestha added. Dilly-dallying in serving the summons has been delaying the court proceedings on the biggest ever corruption scam in the country filed at the Special Court in the first week of July.
The three ex-officials of the Tax Clearance Commission have been facing charges of giving tax rebate amounting to Rs 10.2 billion to various business groups improperly. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had lodged the charge-sheet against them claiming that the officials had given tax rebate improperly when they were in the official position in 2015.
CIAA has accused them of involvement in corruption and sought jail terms of up to ten years and fine equal to the principal amount they amassed in the capacity of the commission officials as per Section 3(h) of Corruption Prevention Act, 2002. The anti-graft body accused the officials of committing crime in violation of Section 7 of the Act, according to which granting improper tax rebate is also corruption.
