Kathmandu, December 14
The Special Court has sent to judicial custody Deep Kumar Basnyat, a former chief of the constitutional anti-corruption body, Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, until the final verdict on one of the biggest corruption cases of current times.
Basnyat was one among 175 people the commission indicted for embezzlement while transferring various plots of land at Baluwatar of Kathmandu into individuals’ names. He was drawn to the case for his role as the secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure before the CIAA job.
A bench of the court’s chairman Prem Raj Karki and judges Abdul Ajij Musalman and Nityananda Pandel issued the order to keep him in custody on late Sunday afternoon. Following the order, police took him to the Dillibajaar Prison.
The court’s deputy registrar Pushpa Raj Pandey says the court has recorded statements from 97 of 175 persons accused of their involvement in the case. Of them, only two have been sent to custody for investigation, and others have been released.
