The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a case in the Special Court on Wednesday against the then Secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives of Lumbini Province, Vaikuntha Adhikari, and other employees, contractor companies and cooperative operators.
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A corruption case has been filed against 17 people, including the then secretary of Lumbini Province, on charges of irregularities in the construction of a cold storage. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case in a special court on Wednesday against the then secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives of Lumbini Province, Baikuntha Adhikari, and other employees, contractor companies and cooperative operators.
The charge sheet filed by the CIAA in the special court states that the crime was confirmed during the investigation into the irregularities in the amount of Rs 7.197 million allocated for the cold storage project in Siddhanath, Sammarimai Rural Municipality-5, Rupandehi district. The same amount of irregularities has been set as the amount and a demand has been made for fines, imprisonment and recovery of the irregular amount.
An agreement was signed with Bhawani Swabalamban Multipurpose Cooperative Organization on 14 Jestha 2076 for the construction of a cold storage with a capacity of 500 metric tons under the approved budget program of the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives for the fiscal year 2076/77.
It was revealed that the project, which cost Rs 54.379 crore, was embezzled in collusion, despite an agreement whereby the ministry would bear 75 percent (Rs 47.84 crore) and the cooperative would bear 25 percent (Rs 13.594 crore).
The CIAA has made the then senior agricultural development officer of the ministry, Shridhar Gyawali, agricultural extension officer Mukesh Ramjali Nepali, accounts officer Laxman Poudel, associate accountant Pal Ajay Mishra, Mega Minds Arctex's Sugam Koirala, manager of Bhavani Swabalamban Cooperative Ashok Tiwari, then chairman of the cooperative Jayaram Gaderiya, then chairman of Krishna Swabalamban Cooperative Ashok Kumar Tripathi, then chairman of Navadurga Cooperative Durga Prasad Kurmi, its then manager Jitendra Yadav, manager of Vaishnomata Cooperative Krishna Kumar Singh, then chairman of Jankalyan Cooperative Fulman Bhar and then chairman of Gautam Buddha Swabalamban Cooperative Om Prakash Gupta, and then chairman of Marchawari Swabalamban Cooperative Shyamsundar Yadav (wife Inrawati Yadav since Yadav died) and chairman of Janutthan Swabalamban Cooperative Katwaru Gosai (wife Rajpati Gosai since Gosai died) as defendants in this case, according to the CIAA.
The charge sheet filed in the special court states that employees, including the secretary of the ministry, embezzled government grants in collusion with the cooperative's directors and consultants.
