Special Court Sentences Former Secretary Thakur to Eight Years in Prison for Corruption in Melamchi Project

The Special Court has announced jail terms for three companies and four individuals in a corruption case after finding them guilty in connection to Melamchi Water Supply Project.     
A bench chaired by Special Court Chairperson Tek Narayan Kunwar, along with members Tej Narayan Singh Rai and Murari Babu Shrestha, delivered the sentence on Monday.
The court had earlier convicted former secretary Gajendra Kumar Thakur and three others on September 11 for their involvement in the case. All convicts have been sentenced to eight years and one month in prison.
Thakur, who chaired the Melamchi Water Supply Committee, has been fined over Rs 100 million. The court imposed a similar fine on Suryaraj Kandel, the former executive director of the committee.
Additionally, the court ordered Ramchandra Devkota, another former executive director and accounts officer of the committee, to pay over Rs 20 million in fines.
Shiva Kumar Sharma, team leader of Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria SL, a design and supervision consultant company, received an eight-year sentence. However, due to his senior citizen status, two years were exempted from his prison term. Sharma was fined over Rs 20 million.
Consulting company EPIIMS was fined over Rs 60 million, while BETS, another company found complicit in the embezzlement, was ordered to pay over Rs 20 million.
The court also imposed a fine of over Rs 260 million on consulting firm CMC Di Ravenna.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed the case at the Special Court on February 18 this year.
It is noteworthy that the court has already acquitted Dr. Sanjay Sharma, Bhim Prasad Upadhyay, Mukunda Prasad Poudel, Rudra Singh Tamang, Chandra Bahadur Thapa, Ghanashyam Bhattarai, Madibhadra Neupane, Bhoj Bikram Thapa, Ramchandra Neupane, Begnath Poudel, and Kedar Prasad Aryal in the same case. -- RSS