Four acquitted in corruption case related to community forest funds

Kathmandu. The Special Court has acquitted four people, including the then chairperson of Jagriti Mahila Samudayik Ban Upabhokta Samiti in Triyuga Municipality-1, Udaipur, in a corruption case. The bench of Special Court judges Hemanta Rawal, Dilliratan Shrestha, and Bidur Koirala acquitted the then chairperson of the consumer committee, Chaudhary, along with secretary Jankumari Chaudhary, treasurer Neelam Chaudhary Tharu, and auditor Tanuklal Chaudhary in the corruption case.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed a corruption case against the chairperson and three others on charges of misappropriating funds of the forest consumer group.

During the investigation, the authority found that while only 495,251 rupees were spent on the construction of the community forest building in the fiscal year 2077/78 according to the technical report, the audit report showed an expenditure of 808,453 rupees, alleging misappropriation of more than 313,000 rupees.

The commission had claimed a total of 515,302 rupees and 58 paisa against the chairperson, secretary, and treasurer. Stating that it was confirmed that they had intentionally misappropriated the public property of the organization, the commission had demanded recovery of the claimed amount along with imprisonment and fines as per the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2059.