KATHMANDU, AUGUST 17

Patan High Court has issued a show cause notice to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Nepali Army Brigadier General Madhukar Singh Karki, and Nepal's former ambassador to the US Arjun Bahadur Karki in a case filed by Sujata Sijali Magar.

A single bench of Justice Sudarshan Raj Pandey issued the show cause notice recently asking defendants to furnish their reply within 15 days. The petitioner had filed a complaint at the CIAA accusing Brig Gen Karki and Arjun Bahadur Karki of corruption and had urged the anti-graft body to initiate investigation against them, but the CIAA did not act on her complaint, letting the accused go scot free. The petitioner has argued that Brig Gen Karki and former ambassador to the US were involved in a controversial financial deal in the US.

According to the writ petition, Brig Gen Karki, while working as a military attaché in Nepal's Embassy in Washington DC, had authenticated a document prepared by the embassy to appoint a legal consortium to defend the government against Axiata Investments Limited and Ncell Pvt Ltd in 2020. Brig Gen Karki had signed a document for the appointment of Foley Hoag LLP, a law firm in Washington DC, and Chhetry and Associates PC, a law firm in New York, as the country's legal consortium by making a payment of $2.3 million to them.

The petitioner stated that Nepal's procurement laws and the law governing Nepali diplomats' economic dealings were flouted as Brig Gen Karki and former ambassador Arjun Bahadur Karki awarded the contract without following any competitive bidding process.

The petitioner said the World Bank had formed a three-member tribunal to probe the case and Nepal was supposed to appoint one representative in the tribunal, but the former ambassador missed the deadline to nominate a representative, forcing the tribunal chair to appoint an American as a Nepal representative.

The Government of Nepal was made a defendant in the case. Nepal incurred a loss due to Arjun Bahadur Karki's failure to appoint a representative.

Brig Gen Karki and Arjun Karki decided to appoint a private lawyer to defend Nepal's case after the embassy failed to nominate a representative in the tribunal.

The petitioner said that former ambassador Karki accepted the lawyer's proposal to defend the case and Brig Gen Karki okayed documents sent to him by the former ambassador. She said Brig Gen Karki's decision to okay documents related to economic matters was unethical.

The Nepali Army can't be involved in financial dealings abroad and Brig Gen Karki's ac-tion violates the army's code of ethics, she added.

Arjun Kumar Karki played a role in appointing Foley Hoag LLP and Chhetry and Associates PC as Nepal's legal consultants after Axiata's UK subsidiary and Ncell filed a request for arbitration with the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, part of the World Bank Group, based in Washington DC, regarding the Capital Gains Tax issues.

Earlier, an officer at the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs had said, 'The financial deal of $2.3 million by Nepal's embassy was made without following the country's public procurement rules.'

A version of this article appears in the print on August 18, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.