Special Court convicts six in Bithadchir Rural Municipality corruption case

Kathmandu. The court has convicted six individuals and sentenced them to imprisonment and fines in a corruption case related to the construction of a playground in Bithadchir Rural Municipality.

On Friday, a bench of Special Court judges Narayan Prasad Poudel, Dilliratna Shrestha, and Bidur Koirala convicted former Chief Administrative Officer Chakradev Bhatta, along with other employees and members of the consumer committee. The court found them guilty of embezzling government funds allocated for the construction of the Bithad playground in Ward No. 1 of Bithadchir Rural Municipality.

The court sentenced former Chief Administrative Officer Chakradev Bhatta to three months in prison and a fine of 244,417.16 rupees. Similarly, Sub-Engineer Ganeshraj Upadhyay, Accountant Harkadev Joshi, and accomplices Dipendra Bahadur Bohara, Bir Bahadur Bohara, and Neelam Bhandari were each sentenced to three months in prison and fined 244,417.16 rupees.

The construction of the playground began in the fiscal year 2076/77 with a budget of 5 million rupees allocated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and 1.5 million rupees from the Federal Parliament Development Fund. During construction, it was found that Sub-Engineer Ganeshraj Upadhyay had inflated work reports and bills, leading to double payments for the same work. The court concluded that corruption occurred through the creation of false bills totaling 1,466,503.92 rupees, specifically regarding double payments for work between chainage 0+000 and 0+040.

The court has ordered the recovery of the embezzled amount to be returned to the rural municipality and mandated that each convict deposit 9,777 rupees into the Victim Relief Fund in accordance with the Crime Victims Protection Act.