Kathmandu, July 1: The Special Court has convicted Mohan Bahadur Basnet, Mayor of Nagarjun Municipality in Kathmandu, on charges of corruption and money laundering, sentencing him to 8 years and 3 months in prison and imposing a fine of over Rs 280 million.
Following the verdict, he has been automatically suspended from his post.
On Monday, a bench comprising Special Court Chairperson Tek Narayan Kunwar and member Ram Bahadur Thapa found Basnet guilty of accepting a bribe amounting to Rs 92.2 million and handed him an 8-year prison sentence for the bribery charge. An additional 3 months of imprisonment was imposed, citing the offense was committed while holding a public office such as that of mayor.
The court also fined both Mayor Basnet and Raju Kandel, director of Padma Housing (who provided the bribe), Rs 23 million each. Additionally, Padma Colony Pvt. Ltd. and Padma Merchant Company Pvt. Ltd. have been ordered to pay the same amount in fines. The total embezzled amount of Rs 92.2 million will be recovered jointly from all four defendants.
Likewise, the court found Basnet guilty in a separate money laundering case involving Rs 131.2 million. He has been sentenced to an additional 3 years in prison for this offense, which will be merged with the 8-year sentence. However, he has been fined double the laundered amount—Rs 262.5 million—and the laundered property is to be confiscated.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed two separate cases against Basnet—one for bribery and the other for money laundering—on January 1 (Poush 15). Basnet was elected mayor of Nagarjun Municipality representing the Nepali Congress.
People's News Monitoring Service