The special court has accepted the audio recording of the phone conversation and its test report from the forensic science laboratory as the first basis for sending former minister Rajkumar Gupta to custody.
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A special court has ordered the remand of former minister Rajkumar Gupta, who is accused of accepting bribes in the land grab of a litchi orchard in Batulechaur, Pokhara, for trial. A bench of Justices Sudarshan Dev Bhatta, Dilli Ratna Shrestha and Bidur Koirala issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday and ordered the remand of Gupta to jail.
Gupta, who appeared in the special court at 11 am on Wednesday, had his statement recorded throughout the day. In his statement, he claimed that the allegations against him were false and that he had not taken bribe from anyone. However, the court has ordered his remand for trial, saying that he could not be considered innocent based on the evidence immediately available.
The court has accepted the audio recording of the phone conversation and its test report from the forensic science laboratory as the first basis for sending Gupta to custody. The court has taken the ‘messages’ sent to Gupta by the then Chief Land Revenue Officer Ram Chandra Adhikari, former minister Ranjita Shrestha and middleman Sujan Kumar Tamang as the second basis.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed a corruption case against two former ministers, Rajkumar Gupta and Ranjita Shrestha, on 23 Asoj in connection with the land grabbing incident of a litchi orchard in Batulechaur, Pokhara. In addition to the middleman Sujan Kumar Tamang, Khem Bahadur Pun, Yam Kumari Gurung and Tulsiram Budhamagar were also made defendants. A demand for Rs 7.8 million was made against former General Administration Minister Gupta, who is also a UML leader, and Nagrik Unmukti Party President and Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shrestha. Former Minister Shrestha has not appeared in court.
An audio recording of a bribe deal involving a plan to grab 134 ropanis of litchi orchard land was made public last Ashar. Gupta, who was in KP Sharma Oli's cabinet, resigned on Ashar after the audio was made public. UML leader Balram Adhikari was the Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation when the bribe transaction took place in Poush 2081. The middleman Tamang had claimed that he had also paid the money. However, a separate investigation was underway and no case was filed against Adhikari.
