The Special Court has convicted senior Nepali officials involved in Nepal Airlines Corporation's (NAC) purchase of two Airbus A330 aircraft for corruption.
A bench comprising the court’s chair Tek Narayan Kunwar, and members Tej Narayan Singh Rai and Ritendra Thapa ruled on Thursday, December 5, that irregularities amounting to Rs 1.47 billion occurred in the procurement process.
After a five-year investigation, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Nepal's constitutional anti-graft body, filed the case in April 2024 against 32 individuals, alleging corruption.
The court found several officials guilty, including the then Tourism Secretary and NAC Board Chair Shankar Prasad Adhikari; NAC General Manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar; NAC Board member and former Secretary Shishir Kumar Dhungana; and Tourism Ministry Joint Secretary Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane.
Former Tourism Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, however, was acquitted.
The convicted individuals have been ordered to pay fines and serve prison sentences. Kansakar received a two-year and nine-month prison sentence, while Adhikari was sentenced to one year and nine months. Lamichhane and Dhungana were each sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison.
Kansakar, as a senior citizen, will receive a 50 percent reduction in his prison sentence.
Each convict must pay Rs 122.59 million in fines and an equal amount as a penalty.
Foreign nationals involved in the case, representatives of the aircraft supplier company, were also convicted. The court sentenced them to one year and six months in prison.
(With inputs from RSS)
