Special Court refuses power of attorney in widebody corruption case

Kathmandu: The Special Court has refused to grant permission of power of attorney to Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the former Tourism Minister to fight the case in widebody aircraft corruption case.

On Sunday, the court ordered that heirs will not be allowed on the petition given by Shahi.

The bench of Justices Khushi Prasad Tharu, Tej Narayan Rai and Ram Bahadur Thapa refused to grant permission to keep heirs. On 4th April, 2024, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a case against 32 people, including former Tourism Minister Shahi, claiming that they had committed corruption of NRS 1.47 billion in the purchase of wide-body aircraft.

The authority filed a case in the Special Court with 32 people including former general manager of Nepal Airlines Corporation Sugatratna Kansakar, former tourism secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari as defendants in the case. Similarly, the CIAA made Shishir Dhungana, Buddhisagar Lamichhane, Teknath Acharya, Nimanuru Sherpa, Muktiram Pandey, Jeevan Sitaula and Achyutaraj Pahadi as defendants.

The decision to buy a widebody plane was made when Shahi was the Tourism Minister. Dhungana was the coordinator of the committee formed to approve the memorandum of understanding for the purchase of widebody aircraft when he was a secretary in the office of the Prime Minister.

Similarly, Buddhisagar Lamichhane, the then joint secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, was involved in corruption while being a member of the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Board of Directors under the Ministry of Tourism, according to the indictment of the Authority.

Other defendants include Teknath Acharya, Nimanuru Sherpa, Mukti Ram Pandey, Jeevan Prakash Sitaula and Achyutaraj Pahadi. Pahadi was the then Director General of the Money Laundering Department.

The corruption allegations stem from the decision to procure two wide-body aircraft during Shahi's tenure as Tourism Minister. The purchases were initially planned with AAR International, but later involved a consortium including German Aviation Capital and Portugal's Highfly Arrows Company under a new entity named Highly X. The deal, amounting to approximately NRS 24 billion, was financed through loans from the Air Services Corporation's Employees' Provident Fund and Citizens' Investment Fund.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the former general manager Sugaratna Kansakar was ordered to be released on a bond of 1 million.