Hearing on corruption case against ex-minister Shahi in wide-body aircraft purchase case begins

. The Supreme Court (SC) has scheduled the hearing on a corruption case related to the purchase of wide-body aircraft. A division bench of Justices Saranga Subedi and Megh Raj Pokharel will hear the case.

The Commission for TAG_OPEN_p_11 the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against the Special Court’s verdict on convicting only 10 of the 32 defendants in the case, including former tourism minister and Nepali Congress leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (TAG_OPEN_p_10 CIAA) has filed an appeal arguing that it was not satisfied with the verdict of the Special Court and that the acquittal of some defendants was wrong.

The Special Court had acquitted the then chairman of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and Tourism Secretary Shankar Adhikari, the then general manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar, and board members Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and Shishir Dhungana.TAG_OPEN_p_9

The Commission for TAG_OPEN_p_8 the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) in the purchase of two wide-body aircraft.

According to the commission, suppliers were paid 6,788,109 US dollars 60 cents (about Rs 745,587,482) more than the supplier.TAG_OPEN_p_7 The CIAA has also claimed that the cost of 242 tons of aircraft with 230 tons should not have been reduced, but the loss was around 6.6 million US dollars (about Rs 725.208 million).

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has reached the Supreme Court (SC) arguing that although the Special Court has convicted some of the defendants, it was not fair to punish all the defendants and acquit some of them.TAG_OPEN_p_6