A bench of Special Court Judges Narayan Prasad Poudel and Dilli Ratna Shrestha is seeking expert opinion on a case that has been referred to the Supreme Court for re-determination.
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The special court has ordered the summoning of experts in the corruption case of the Tax Fraud Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, including former Director General of the Inland Revenue Department, Chudamani Sharma.
A bench of special court judges Narayan Prasad Poudel and Dilli Ratna Shrestha is going to seek expert opinion on the case that has been referred to the Supreme Court for retrial.
The special court had initially pronounced the guilty verdict. The Supreme Court had referred the appeal against it to the special court for a retrial. The Supreme Court had referred the case to the special court in Ashar 2082. The Supreme Court, a bench of Justices Saranga Subedi and Tek Prasad Dhungana, had found the previous verdict to be erroneous and decided to send the case back to the special court.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed a case against Sharma in the tax evasion case and disproportionate assets case. He was convicted in the tax evasion case by the special court and acquitted of the disproportionate assets charge.
The Supreme Court had overturned both these decisions and asked for a re-examination of the facts and a verdict.
The decision was made by the then Special Court Chairman Shrikant Poudel, members Yamuna Bhattarai and Shaligram Koirala. He had appealed to the Supreme Court after being found guilty in a case of indiscriminately giving a large amount of exemption to traders while he was in the Tax Forfeiture Commission. He had worked as the member-secretary of the commission when he was the Director General of the Internal Revenue Department.
The Authority had filed a corruption case against the then Tax Forfeiture Commission Chairman Lumbadhwaj Mahat, member Umesh Dhakal and member-secretary Sharma.
The Supreme Court held that the special court did not comply with the principle of fair trial because it took the opinion of the expert without informing the accused while making the decision. This is the reason why the special court has now ordered to take the opinion of the expert.
Mahat was sentenced to 9 years and 1 month in prison by the special court in the tax evasion case. Dhakal and Sharma were sentenced to 9 years in prison, one month less.
Each of them had to pay a fine of 6.16 billion 40 million 96 thousand 847 rupees in the special court's verdict. Sharma was imprisoned after failing to deposit the amount of imprisonment and fine before appealing to the Supreme Court, and was released after being returned to the special court.
They had also filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court, alleging that they were being illegally detained. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition.
The authority claimed that Sharma had illegally acquired property worth 3.45 million 32 thousand 356 rupees during his period in government service.
