Former Minister Bikram Pandey Faces Charges for Website Hacking and Contract Manipulation

Kathmandu. It has been found that the police's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has filed a case by altering the opinion it had given against former minister Vikram Pandey. In the incident of hacking the Public Procurement Monitoring Office's website and changing the tender details, the police had recommended filing a case against Pandey under sections 45 and 46 of the Electronic Transactions Act and section 3 of the Organized Crime Prevention Act 2070. However, in the charge sheet filed in the Kathmandu District Court on Baisakh 25, a claim has been made to punish Pandey only under sections 45 and 46 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2063. Kalika Construction operator Pandey was found to have reduced the bid amount from 67 crore to 60 crore by changing the financial documents in the tender he participated in after the bid submission deadline. The District Government Attorney's Office Kathmandu has also filed a charge sheet against Rishikesh Gauli of Ashish Nirman Sewa, removing the organized crime charge. There is a legal provision for additional punishment when charged with organized crime. The bureau had recommended filing cases against the 12 arrested individuals and other absconding defendants for organized crime, electronic transactions, and virtual currency transactions. The police investigation concluded that Nayab Subba Diwakar Deuja was the main planner of the incident of hacking the website and seizing the contract. Deuja, who was working at the Urban Development and Building Construction Office, Dhankuta, is mentioned in the charge sheet filed in court as having altered the tender details and received money in return. Deuja, 33, from Pakhribas Municipality-5, Dhankuta, was arrested by the CIB on Falgun 28, 2082, and investigation began. Deuja was previously arrested in 2077 for embezzling funds through a top-up system by hacking the Telecom server. Deuja, arrested for the second time for a similar offense, was found to be receiving virtual currency from construction companies after altering tender details. The police investigation report states that Deuja, who played the role of the main technical 'implementer' in the hacking incident, had 20,000 crypto currency in his account. A charge sheet has also been filed against him for virtual currency transactions. However, Deuja has claimed in his statement that he does not engage in Bitcoin and crypto transactions. He stated, 'I do not conduct cryptocurrency transactions and mining.' In the incident of hacking the Public Procurement Monitoring Office's website and changing tender details, the police investigation concluded that crypto transactions worth 2.3 million rupees occurred. The defendants transferred the received amounts to a BTS address through virtual currency transactions. The police investigation concluded that economic manipulation in tenders was carried out by transacting in crypto using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide their device information and real identity, accessing various e-tenders called from the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO). The police investigation report mentions the involvement of Diwakar Deuja, Sanjay Bhatta, and Bharat Dhami in crypto transactions. Sanjay Bhatta is the operator of Soli Thumka Nirman Sewa. He revealed in his statement that after being offered 5.6 million rupees to manipulate documents for a road contract in Gulmi district by adding 2 crore to his bid, he sent 2.3 million rupees worth of crypto through a person living in America. He said, 'When someone claiming to be a PPMO employee told me that the payment had to be made through Bitcoin, I paid 2.3 million through a person living in America.' He admitted that his brother-in-law, Bhaskarraj Aryal, 35, from Kathmandu-33, facilitated the crypto payment. Bhaskar has also been arrested and made a defendant. Bharat Dhami, 25, from Durgathali Rural Municipality-3, Bajhang, who appeared to have a suspicious role in crypto transactions, was interrogated by the police. He is not present in court with other defendants during the filing of the charge sheet. Dhami denied the fact that he used a found Ncell SIM card and gained unauthorized access to Data Hub Pvt. Ltd.'s cloud server through that SIM card. He said, 'I have not hacked the PPMO website and changed the bid price.'