E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, MAR 20 -

Former minister and Nepali Congress leader Chiranjibi Wagle is in jail on an 18-month jail for corruption, and the public waits with bated breath action against more such bigwigs. Tarring and feathering of swaggering ballyhoos is on the cards, legally, and all in pecking order.

Officials at the apex court said that it is gearing up to issue its verdict on corruption cases filed against former ministers Govinda Raj Joshi, Khum Bahadur Khadka, Rabindra Nath Sharma (sadly departed), Padma Sundar Lawati, JP Gupta and former police chief Moti Lal Bohara, among others. “The court has prioritised corruption cases filed against both political and non-political figures,” said SC Joint Registrar Shree Kant Poudel.

Officials at the court said though the verdict against Wagle did not establish any precedent, it was the first instance where a number of “principles”, which were explained earlier by the court, have been implemented practically in the ruling and the same principles will be applied in deciding cases of a similar nature.

After Wagle, the court is preparing to summon people involved in Joshi and Khadka’s cases before issuing its final verdict. “We will fix the

date within a month,” said Poudel. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), national-anti-graft body, had filed corruption cases at the Supreme Court against 137 politicians and bureaucrats for amassing property disproportionate to their known sources of income, after the restoration of democracy in 1990. Cases filed against Sharma, Joshi, Khadka and Bohara are noted as high-profile corruption cases in Nepal.

Though these cases were filed at the Special Court, they came to the apex court in appeals by the CIAAA after they all got clean chits.

In 2003, CIAA had filed cases against Sharma at the Special Court for illegally amassing Rs 39.55 million from unknown sources, including through gold smuggling.

Though Sharma passed away in 2008, his case is still pending at the court. The anti-graft-body had appealed to the Supreme Court after the Special Court gave Sharma a clean chit citing statute of limitation, which refers to the limitation that corruption cases must be filed within a year after the object of attention resigns his public position.

Khadka was accused of earning Rs 23.6 million illegally

while he assumed different ministerial posts in the post 1990 period. Khadka also was given a clean chit by the Special Court citing the same ‘statute of limitation’. Joshi was charged with amassing Rs 39.9 million illegally. Former Police chief Moti Lal Bohara was accused of amassing Rs 23.8 million.

CIAA officials are encouraged by the latest verdict of the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court’s latest decision has boosted our morale. Such a historic decision is a precedent for similar cases in days to come,” CIAA Spokesman Ishwori Paudyal said.  Supreme Court Spokes-

person Hemant Rawal said, “The Court is set to take action against all the guilty regardless of their designation.”

Posted on: 2011-03-20 08:38

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