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Kathmandu, July 13 — Federal Affairs and General Administration Minister Raj Kumar Gupta has been drawn into a corruption scandal after an audio recording surfaced, allegedly linking him to a bribery scheme involving the transfer of a land revenue official.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is currently investigating a complaint that accuses Minister Gupta of accepting Rs 5.3 million to prevent the transfer of Ram Chandra Adhikari, who was then serving as the Chief of the Land Revenue Office in Kaski. The complaint, filed on June 24, was accompanied by photographic evidence showing two bags believed to contain the bribe, images of bundled currency, and the serial numbers of the banknotes.
Shortly after the complaint was filed, an audio recording lasting nearly 10 minutes was made public. In the recording, Minister Gupta is allegedly heard discussing financial dealings related to halting Adhikari’s transfer. He is also heard naming Land Management Minister Balram Adhikari as part of the scheme.
The conversation, reportedly involving Gupta, a middleman, and a woman, also covers the appointment of a district chairperson of the Land Commission. A voice in the audio mentions delivering Rs 2 million to Minister Balram Adhikari on behalf of Khem Bahadur Pun, a CPN-UML member of the Gandaki Province Assembly, in return for Pun’s appointment as Kaski chair of the Land Commission. The payment was allegedly split into two parts—Rs 1.5 million on the day of the conversation and Rs 1 million the following day.
People’s News Monitoring Service