KATHMANDU, JULY 24

The Special Parliamentary probe committee formed to investigate alleged entry of unauthorised persons in the Ministry of Finance on May 28, a day before the budget was presented in the House of Representatives, has ordered the home ministry to produce CCTV footage of May 28 and May 29 recorded at south and east gates of Singha Durbar.

Media outlets reported that outsiders were allowed to enter the finance ministry on the night of May 28 to tweak the budget, an allegation the then minister of finance Janardan Sharma denies.

Sharma quit as minister of finance after the main opposition CPN- UML created ruckus in the Parliament over the issue.

Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal's Laxman Lal Karna, who chaired the committee meeting, said they wanted to see the entry of unauthorised persons from these gates as the committee had not received the footage recorded on May 28 at the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance had said the CCTV footage recorded on May 28 got deleted after 13 days.

On July 21, the HoR extended the deadline for the completion of the parliamentary committee's job by seven days. The committee has also sought Nepal Police Forensic Laboratory's help to retrieve the CCTV footage.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 25, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.