The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case at the Special Court against 14 individuals, including Dr. Milan Kumar Thapa, the Member Secretary of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT).

Among the accused are former PADT Member Secretary and current Council member Raju Kumar Khatri, former Executive Director Dr. Ghanashyam Khatiwada, and two companies.

The CIAA has charged them with financial irregularities totaling Rs. 103.3 million in the procurement of electric cremation machines.

According to the CIAA, PADT officials manipulated the bidding process (Contract No. PADT/NCB/GOODS/2079-080/T4) to restrict competition and favour select bidders. Standard procurement procedures were bypassed, and a consultancy contract was directly awarded to Map Entrepreneurs Pvt. Ltd.—a firm lacking the required expertise.

Officials allegedly appointed the company without verifying its credentials. In collusion with contractors, they fabricated quotations, enlisted fake technical experts, and inflated cost estimates. A fraudulent report was submitted, and payments were approved even before invoices were issued.

The CIAA revealed that the price of each cremation machine was hiked to Rs. 15.2 million from the initial estimate of Rs. 3.25 million. Despite clear defects, the machines were accepted without proper inspection. Advance payments amounting to Rs. 18.2 million were made, but the payment guarantee expired without recovery, and no legal action was taken.

The machines, now installed, remain non-operational due to substandard quality and lack of timely maintenance.

The probe confirmed that the malpractice caused a financial loss of Rs. 103.3 million to the state.

The case names several other PADT officials as defendants, including then-Deputy Directors Rewati Raman Adhikari and Sitaram Risel; engineers Pashupati Thakur, Denish Upreti, and Ramesh Puri; and Accounts Officer Chandra Prasad Khanal. Also named are Yuwaraj Adhikari, Head of the Electrical Department at the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk; PADT Legal Advisor Lain Bahadur Thapa; Map Entrepreneurs Pvt. Ltd. and its operators Manoj Puri and Yadunandan Bhattarai; and Apple Engineering Professional Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. along with its Managing Director Suraj Chapagai.

The CIAA has demanded recovery of the full amount of losses from all defendants.

People’s News Monitoring Service