The special court has sought bail of Rs 150,000 from former secretary Sushil Ghimire in the Pokhara Airport corruption case.
What you should know
The special court has demanded a bail of Rs 150,000 from former secretary Sushil Ghimire in the Pokhara Airport corruption case. The bench of judges Narayan Prasad Poudel, Umesh Koirala and Bidur Koirala of the special court has demanded a bail from Ghimire after his statement. The CIAA had claimed a loss of Rs 8.36 billion 7.355 billion 297 from Ghimire. The order to demand bail in Ghimire's case has been made in view of his official responsibilities and role, as decided later. On Monday, the special court had ordered the release of former secretaries Madhu Kumar Marasini, Mohan Krishna Sapkota, Suman Prasad Sharma, former deputy secretary Premnath Upadhyay and then manager Ramchandra Subedi, a Nepali citizen, on ordinary dates.
The special court ordered their release on a regular date, saying that although they were present as invited members in the meeting, it did not appear that they were directly involved in other stages of the procurement process.
The special court released them on a regular date, citing the legal provision that there is no possibility of remand in custody and that bail is not required. Pradeep Adhikari, the former Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, who was involved in the same case, was sent to custody in a case, while in the Pokhara Airport case, the Supreme Court overturned the special court's bail order and ordered his detention.
A case was filed against 55 people and a company on charges of corruption in the construction of Pokhara International Airport. The then ministers Ram Sharan Mahat, Bhim Acharya, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Deepak Amatya, and the late Posta Bahadur Bogati were made defendants. The then secretaries Madhu Marasini, Sushil Ghimire, Sureshman Shrestha, Suman Prasad Sharma, Bheshraj Sharma were made defendants. Joint secretaries Ranjan Krishna Aryal, Mohan Krishna Sapkota, Lok Bahadur Khatri, Suresh Acharya have been made defendants in the case. Civil Aviation Authority members Jyoti Adhikari, Manoj Karki, Phurba Tshiring Sherpa, Member Secretary Madan Kharel, Muktinarayan Poudel, Surya Prasad Acharya, Manrup Shahi have also been made defendants.
The then Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, the then Deputy Director General Suman Kumar Shrestha, and Deputy Secretary Hari Bahadur Khadka have also been made defendants. Deputy Director General Roshan Chitrakar, Hrishikesh Sharma, Narayan Giri, Deputy Director Mahesh Kumar Basnet, Director Baburam Poudel, Deputy Director Ashok Kumar Subedi, Manager Murari Bhandari, Deputy Director Suvarnaraj Upadhyay have also been made defendants.
Former Chairman of the Inclusive Commission Ramkrishna Timilsina has also been made a defendant in the corruption case.
