Accusation of causing 567.1 million damages to the union, state and local governments
A corruption case has been filed against 8 people including the then Economic Affairs and Planning Minister of Madhesh Province Vijay Kumar Yadav and the suspended Mayor of Bagmati Municipality of Sarlahi Bharat Thapa. The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission filed a case against them in a special court on Sunday.
The authority has accused them of misappropriating the revenue collected from mining products by trespassing Sagarnath forest and the budget allocated from the union, state and local governments during the construction of structures including Bharat Lake. The authority has demanded 567.1 million bigo against them.
Former minister Yadav was elected to the state assembly from Jaspa led by Upendra Yadav in the 2074 election and became a minister. Similarly, Mayor Thapa and Deputy Mayor Leela Kumari Moktan of Bagmati are the winning representatives from the Maoists in the local elections of 2074 and 2079. They are suspended due to corruption cases filed earlier.
The then chief administrative officer of the municipality, Bimal Kumar Pokharel, the then law officer of the state ministry, Gokul Bhujel, the then engineer of Bagmati, Sagar Paudel and another engineer Niranjan Lamichhane, the then accounting officer of the municipality, Vishwaraj Pokharel, were also the defendants.
According to the indictment, fines and imprisonment have been demanded against ex-minister Yadav and law officer Bhujel with the same amount of 299.99 lakhs. 56 crore 71 lakh against Mayor Thapa, Deputy Mayor Moktan and then chief administrative officer Pokharel, 10 crore 14 lakh against then engineer Niranjan Lamichhane, 46 crore 56 lakh against municipal engineer Sagar Paudel.
Accounts officer of the municipality, Vishwaraj Pokharel, has been charged 56.3 million rupees and a demand for imprisonment and fine has been taken. It is stated in the indictment that they encroached on the forest area of Sagarnath Forest Development Project Sarlahi under Bagmati Municipality-4 and 12 Wards and illegally excavated stone, gravel, sand, soil and other natural resources of forest produce and made a hole and in the same hole they took the budget from the union and state government under the guise of constructing a fish pond.
In addition, it is mentioned in the indictment that all the structures were made in violation of the law, and the subsidy received in collusion with the officials and employees of Madhesh government from the year 2075/76 to the year 2079/80 was damaged.
Bagmati Municipality received 567.1 million rupees in various stages to build structures including ponds from the Union, State and local governments. It has been shown that 69.4 million rupees of the union, 476.9 million rupees of the state government and 27 million rupees of the local government have been spent on the construction of structures including Bharat Lake.
On March 28, 2080, the Authority filed a case against the suspended Mayor Thapa in a special court on charges of amassing 533353 thousand rupees. On June 29, 2081, another case filed against him and others on charges of encroachment of Sagarnath forest and misuse of government resources/equipment in the name of Bharat Lake is also pending in the special court.
