Chief Commissioner Prem Kumar Rai Linked to Multiple Corruption Scandals

Kathmandu. Chief Commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Prem Kumar Rai has been avoiding facing judicial proceedings despite being implicated in various cases. Chief Commissioner Prem Kumar Rai's name has been linked to the wide-body aircraft case, the Nepal Oil Corporation land case, the Bhairahawa airport land case, and the fake Bhutanese refugee case.

His name became associated with these cases due to various decisions made when he was the secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The CIAA filed a corruption case in the Special Court based on a decision he made while he was secretary, but coincidentally, the CIAA, which he now leads, has overlooked the decision made by him in his capacity as the then secretary.

The Special Court itself made a judicial remark stating that the investigation and prosecution selection in the wide-body aircraft corruption case, for which he was prosecuted, was selective.

When Rai was the secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, he was the key decision-maker in the purchase of the wide-body aircraft, which led the Special Court to question why the investigation into the case was selective. While Rai was the secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the chairman of the board of directors of Nepal Airlines Corporation, the proposal to purchase two wide-body aircraft moved forward, and a subcommittee was formed for this purpose.

The court's verdict stated that the decision to purchase the aircraft with the condition that it had flown one thousand hours and was manufactured after 2014 was the starting point of the malfeasance in the aircraft procurement process. When Rai was the chairman of the Citizen Investment Fund, a loan of 12 billion rupees was approved for the purchase of the aircraft. The Special Court, in its verdict, questioned why those involved in the aircraft procurement process were not brought under the purview of the law for the decisions based on which the procurement was carried out.

The Special Court objected to the charge sheet overlooking the decision to form a subcommittee, while the procurement process based on that decision was charged as a corrupt act. The verdict stated, 'It appears that a selective approach has been adopted, where some individuals involved in the same act are not prosecuted at all, while others are prosecuted. Selective prosecution goes against the principle of equal justice. Such actions undermine the spirit that the law is equal for all and weaken faith in justice.'

The Special Court ruled that there was corruption of 1.47 billion rupees in the purchase and ordered a fine of 122.5 million rupees and the recovery of the embezzled amount. In the wide-body case, Rai is linked from the procurement decision to the investigation and prosecution of corruption. Then-Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Rai, held the responsibility of the Corporation's chairman from January 25, 2016, to September 11, 2016. Then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and then-Minister of Tourism Anand Pokharel had brought him to the Ministry of Tourism.

On May 15, 2016, a meeting of the Corporation's board of directors chaired by Rai decided to 'proceed with the aircraft purchase process and form a subcommittee for it.' However, a subcommittee under the leadership of the then General Manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar had already been formed on January 18, 2016, according to the Corporation's financial regulations.

Rai, who was the then secretary, formed a 4-member wide-body aircraft procurement subcommittee under the convenorship of board member Surya Prasad Acharya in May, rendering the subcommittee formed in January inactive. On August 15, 2016, that subcommittee recommended purchasing an old aircraft that had already flown up to a thousand hours in the name of purchasing 'brand new' aircraft. This background was created to purchase aircraft from intermediary companies, not directly from Airbus.

An agreement was reached to purchase two wide-body aircraft for 209.6 million dollars, and 80 million dollars were paid upfront. The Auditor General had raised questions about not comparing the aircraft price with that from the manufacturer, Airbus.

How was he involved in Nepal Oil Corporation?

Prem Kumar Rai was repeatedly saved from various scandals to be appointed as the Chief Commissioner of the CIAA. When the investigation by the CIAA into the 1.36 billion rupee corruption case of Nepal Oil Corporation was in its final stages, the then government led by KP Sharma Oli recommended him as the Chief Commissioner of the CIAA, putting the complaint on hold.

The CIAA had launched an investigation into Rai after the Public Accounts Committee directed it to do so, alleging that 1.36 billion rupees were embezzled in the purchase of over 90 bighas of land across the country by Nepal Oil Corporation for fuel storage. According to regulations, transactions exceeding 2 million rupees require a decision from the Corporation's board of directors, but this was facilitated by delegating the authority to the Corporation's Executive Director. Rai was the ex-officio chairman of the Corporation's board of directors at that time as the Secretary of Supply.

Rai's Role in Gautam Buddha Airport Land Acquisition Too

In the land acquisition and 23 billion rupee compensation distribution case of Bhairahawa (Gautam Buddha) International Airport, considered the biggest financial irregularity in Nepal's aviation infrastructure history, Chief Commissioner of the CIAA Prem Kumar Rai appears to have made decisions in his capacity as secretary. While 450 bighas of land would have been sufficient for the airport construction, 700 bighas were acquired. In this project, where only 8.22 billion rupees were spent on physical infrastructure construction, more than double the required land was acquired.

On May 17, 2016, as the then Secretary of Tourism, Prem Kumar Rai submitted a proposal to the cabinet, approved by the line minister, which clearly recommended acquiring an additional 288 bighas of land and 450 houses and structures on it for the development and upgrading of the airport. On the last page of that proposal (which ends with 'Gha' in its boundary description), his clear signature as 'Secretary' (Premkumar Rai) and the date 2016/04/21 are indicated.

In April 2025, a subcommittee under the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament concluded that nearly double the required land was acquired for the construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa. The subcommittee concluded that the airport's operation was not assured due to the lack of necessary technical equipment, with three times more money spent on compensation than on the project itself.

While the total investment for the construction of Bhairahawa Airport, considered an alternative to Tribhuvan International Airport, was 8.22 billion rupees, the compensation for the land acquired for the airport construction cost more than three times the amount spent on construction.

Name Linked in Bhutanese Refugee Case Too, Not Made a Defendant

Prem Kumar Rai's name has also been linked in his capacity as the then Home Secretary to the case of creating fake Bhutanese refugees by Nepali citizens. Keshav Prasad Dulal, who was implicated in the fraud case of creating fake Bhutanese refugees, testified that he gave 10 million rupees to then-Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai. According to the statement, that incident occurred on August 26, 2019.

In his statement to the police in the presence of a government lawyer, Sanu Bhandari, the main planner of the fake refugee case, named the incumbent Chief Commissioner of the CIAA. He stated in his statement that after placing the money in Rai's car, he went to meet him in his office.

Although Prem Kumar Rai's name was mentioned in the statement, he was not made a defendant in the Bhutanese refugee case. After not being made a defendant, last week, lawyers at the Kathmandu District Court demanded that former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, former ministers Arzu Deuba, Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, and Manju Khan, wife of Balkrishna Khand, among others, including Chief Commissioner of the CIAA Prem Kumar Rai, be summoned for testimony. However, Judge Tej Bahadur Khadka's bench of the District Court stated that while it was argued that they should be called for testimony, the District Court, exercising its extraordinary jurisdiction, could not assume jurisdiction and therefore could not summon them for testimony. The court issued a brief order stating that it could not proceed as requested by the petitioner in the absence of the Nepal government filing supplementary charges, and therefore, no further comment was necessary.