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Kathmandu, Aug 6:  The Special Court has found Bharat Thapa, the suspended mayor of Bagmati Municipality in Sarlahi, guilty in two separate corruption cases on the same day

A joint bench of Special Court Chair Tek Narayan Kunwar and members Muraribabu Shrestha and Bidur Koirala delivered the verdict Wednesday, convicting Thapa of causing financial loss to government property during the construction of the Bharat Lake. He was also convicted in a separate case related to illegal property acquisition.

According to the brief verdict made public Wednesday night, Thapa, along with Bimal Kumar Pokharel and Sagar Poudel, was found guilty in the Bharat Lake corruption case. The court determined that their actions caused a loss of Rs 302.9 million through irregularities in the extraction and sale of river-based materials.

The court has scheduled a separate hearing for next Thursday (August 15) to determine the sentence. In corruption cases with sentences of more than three years, a separate hearing is required to decide punishment.

Others accused in the case — Lilakumari Moktan, Bishwaraj Pokharel, and Methur Chaudhary — were acquitted.

In the second case, the court found Mayor Thapa guilty of acquiring Rs 34.5 million in illegal property. Though he legally earned Rs 91.4 million, his total assets were found to be worth Rs 125.9 million. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had claimed he acquired Rs 53.3 million illegally.

In this case, the court sentenced Thapa to one year in prison and ordered him to pay the illicit gain of Rs 34.5 million and an equal amount in fines.

Thapa has been under suspension since March 10, 2024, after being charged. With this verdict, his suspension will remain in effect.

The CIAA had accused Thapa of irregularities worth Rs 302.9 million during the construction of Bharat Lake in Wards 4 and 12 of Bagmati Municipality. Deputy Mayor Lilakumari Moktan and several municipal officials were also charged.

Former chief administrative officer Bimal Kumar Pokharel, engineering head Sagar Poudel, and accounting officer Bishwaraj Pokharel were also charged for the same amount in damages. Former Sarlahi District Coordination Committee head Methur Chaudhary was charged only with a demand for jail and fines.

The main allegation was irregularities in the extraction and sale of river materials like stones, gravel, and sand during lake construction. It was also alleged that a fishpond was built without approval in a forest area under the Sagarnath Forest Development Project. The preliminary project report of the so-called Bharat Lake was found to be unapproved.

The municipality constructed the lake using the Bagmati River’s flow without permission from the Sagarnath Project or the Government of Nepal.

The CIAA accused the municipality of extracting 3.973 million cubic meters of river-based materials from two ponds and selling another 0.7 million cubic meters, but accounting for only 3.359 million cubic meters of stones. A total of 1.34 million cubic meters was unaccounted for, resulting in a loss of Rs 268 million. With VAT included, the total estimated loss reached Rs 302.9 million.

People’s News Monitoring Service