Hearing on corruption case against 16 including ex-minister Basnet

Kathmandu. The Special Court is hearing the corruption case filed against 16 persons, including former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet, in connection with the purchase of Terramax technology.

A three-member bench of Justices Narayan Prasad Poudel, Hemanta Rawal and Dilli Ratna Shrestha was hearing the case.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against 16 persons, including former minister Basnet, demanding a recovery of Rs 351 million. According to the CIAA, former minister Basnet had taken the decision on the purchase of Teramox technology on his own proposal without any adequate study. It is alleged that during the budget and program approval, it was decided to purchase the system for international call monitoring and VoIP control.

Digambar Jha, the then chairman of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, has been accused of trying to implement Terramax when the legal infrastructure was not ready. The study conducted before the purchase decision suggested that citizens’ call exchanges and data consumption could be monitored only after the law is enacted.

However, the anti-graft body alleges that Jha had taken the decision to purchase Terramax on February 21, 2016. Although the annual budget should have been presented only once, it has been accused of taking the decision by pressuring the board time and again.

The anti-graft body has also filed corruption case against former NRA members Dhanraj Gyawali and Tika Prasad Upreti. Gyawali was a representative in the NRA board when he was the joint secretary at the Ministry of Law.

According to the CIAA, the case has been filed against them on the charge of violating the Supreme Court’s directive order in January 2073 to deny the investigating agency access to the call detail record (CDR) of a person without the court’s permission.

In his statement to the CIAA, Gyawali had said that he was pressured by the chairman of the authority. The CIAA has alleged that Upreti also gave a similar statement but it was not credible. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has accused former minister Basnet of colluding with NRA officials.