Former Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and 16 Others Face Corruption Case Hearing

Kathmandu. The corruption case against former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and 16 others in the Terramax technology procurement scandal is scheduled for hearing today, kept 'under consideration'. The hearing is being conducted by a special court bench comprising judges Hemant Rawal, Dilliratra Shrestha, and Umesh Koirala.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority had demanded a claim of 3 kharba 51 arab rupees against former minister Basnet and 16 others. Former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet is accused of making a decision to procure Terramax technology directly on his proposal without any study. He had decided to procure a suitable system for international call monitoring and VoIP control in the budget and program approval process of the autonomous Nepal Telecommunications Authority.

The then chairman of the authority, Digambar Jha, is accused of trying to implement Terramax without the necessary legal infrastructure. The study conducted before the procurement decision had opined that monitoring citizens' call exchanges and data consumption would only be possible after the law was enacted. Contrary to this, Jha had made the decision to procure Terramax on Magh 21, 2073. Although the annual budget is presented only once, he repeatedly brought proposals to the board and acted with malicious intent under pressure, according to the authority's allegations.

The authority has also made former members of the authority, Dhanaraj Gyawali and Tikaprasad Upreti, defendants. Gyawali was a representative on the authority's board while he was a joint secretary in the Ministry of Law. In January 2073, the Supreme Court issued a directive order not to provide access to call detail records (CDR) of individuals for investigation without court permission.

The authority had filed a corruption case against Gyawali and Upreti on the charge of being involved in the decision to grant access to citizens' calls and data, which would violate such an order from the court.

Gyawali stated in his statement to the authority that the chairman of the authority had pressured him. Upreti also made a similar statement, but the authority alleges that it was not credible.

The authority has accused minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet, along with authority chairman Digambar Jha, and members Gyawali and Upreti of collusion, citing that a decision was made even in the absence of two experts.