Corruption Case Registered Against Two Individuals
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a case in the Special Court against the then Senior Divisional Engineer of the Department of Archaeology, Purnabahadur Shrestha, and Assistant Path Pradakshak Deukla Adhikari, on charges of irregularities. The Commission has filed the case in the Special Court with a compensation amount of 42,275,985 rupees. The Commission has demanded action under two separate acts against both defendants. According to the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2064, it has demanded the confiscation of houses, land, and gold bought from illegally acquired property, as well as further imprisonment and fines.
Engineer Purnabahadur Shrestha had facilitated construction contractors and joint ventures in various contracts conducted by the Department of Archaeology by demanding bribes and commissions. It has been confirmed by the investigation that he had deposited the illegal amount obtained from this into the bank account of an assistant deukala officer working in his own department.
Similarly, it has been found that they adopted various methods to make illegally acquired money appear legal. From the more than 42,275,000 rupees repeatedly deposited in the account of Deukla Adhikari, they jointly purchased houses and land in various locations in Nuwakot and Kathmandu, bought gold jewelry, and made payments to different individuals. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has stated that during the investigation, they created benami ownership to hide the source of this money, showed fake loans, and laundered assets by transacting in cash outside the banking system.
