Corruption Case Filed Against Former Soru Chief and 10 Others

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against 11 people at the Special Court. This includes the former Chief Administrative Officer of Soru rural municipality in Mugu district.

Those accused are former chief Birendra Malla, engineer Prakash Acharya, assistant sub-engineer Manoj Dhami, accountant Jeth Bahadur Budha, planning section head Nabin Bumi, consumer committee chair Bishnu Dutta Jaisi, treasurer Nanda Devi Jaisi, secretary Paumal Sarki, road project monitor Dalbir Sarki, committee member Dharma Raj Jaisi, and acting ward chair of ward number 10, Birendra Bahadur Malla.

CIAA spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel said the case is about corruption in a road project from Shahidgate to Kot. The project was under the Chief Minister Employment Program in the fiscal year 2020-21.

The CIAA found that the consumer committee was formed after the project had already started. The technical team did not inspect the site properly and gave false reports. They claimed more work was done than actually completed.

The design estimated 6,623.8 cubic meters of road work, but only 3,113.03 cubic meters were finished. Despite this, full payment was made.

The monitoring committee also failed to do its job. They gave incomplete reports and approved payment based on wrong data.

Because of this, over NPR 2.32 million was wrongly paid to the committee. The CIAA has charged the individuals with embezzlement and misuse of power.