The court has also ruled to pay a fine of Rs. 15.425 crore.
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The special court has sentenced former managing director of Nepal Telecom Sunil Poudel to 8 and a half years in prison in a case related to disproportionate assets.
The bench of judges Surdashandev Bhatta, Hemanta Rawal and Dilli Ratna Shrestha of the special court has sentenced him to 8 years in prison for disproportionate assets and an additional 6 months in prison for holding an executive position.
The special court has also ordered him to pay a fine of Rs 15.425 crore. Similarly, the special court has also ordered him to collect Rs 617,000 from each person and deposit it in the Victims Relief Fund as per Section 41 (3) of the Crime Victims Protection Act, 2075 BS. Along with Poudel, the special court has also sentenced Deepak Anand to the same imprisonment and fine. He had concealed the assets that Poudel had illegally acquired.
Poudel was found guilty on Tuesday, but the sentence was only determined on Thursday. On Tuesday, the special court had found him guilty of corruption amounting to Rs 15.5 crore including bribery. The special court had also sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison on the same day in the bribery case. The special court had found him guilty of Rs 12.5 crore and a fine of Rs 12.75 crore in the bribery case. In both cases, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had claimed that Sunil Poudel had made financial transactions from various banks in Singapore.
The CIAA had filed a charge sheet for bribery along with undisclosed assets after the details of the transactions from Singapore were revealed while recovering equipment from Poudel's house. He was also found guilty of the case of illegal acquisition of wealth on the charge of hiding the money in a Singapore bank.
Such a large amount of money is rarely found in cases on the charge of illegal acquisition of wealth.
The verdict said that Poudel, who has also been the Executive Director of the National Information Technology Center, will be fined Rs 12.75 crore and the same amount will be fined. Similarly, Poudel Rs 5.1 million will also have to be deposited in the Victim Relief Fund.
Poudel has illegally earned Rs 149.7 million and the source of other assets has not been disclosed, the special verdict states.
Based on the letter received from the official body in Singapore and the forensic report of the electronic device, it was seen that Sunil Poudel had opened a bank account in Singapore. It was found that there was a foreign deposit of Rs 135.3 million in his account in Singapore.
