KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 2

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a case in the Special Court against nine people, including the sitting secretary and the managing director of Nepal Telecom, on corruption charges related to the purchase of the national payment gateway.

Additionally, a case has been filed against nine individuals, including the former secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the former chairperson of the National Information Technology Centre, Sanjaya Sharma.

The national payment gateway, which was purchased six years ago, has not been used since its acquisition. The CIAA filed the case because it was discovered that government property was illegally damaged and misused through the purchase of the gateway at an 'unnatural' cost of Rs 250 million, without the necessary infrastructure preparations.

In this case, the defendants include the former executive director of the Centre, Pranita Upadhyay; the deputy executive director of the Centre and the current managing director of Nepal Telecom, Sunil Paudel; Nepal Telecom's deputy director, Safal Shrestha; the former secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, Madhu Kumar Marasini; the former assistant director of the Centre, Ramesh Prasad Pokharel; account officers Nim Bahadur Oli and Ram Bahadur Budha, as well as computer engineer Ram Sharan Gayak.

The CIAA has claimed the recovery of amounts equal to over Rs 232 million that were misappropriated by the former secretary Sharma, NTC managing director Paudel, account officer Budha, former assistant director of the Centre Pokharel, and secretary Marasini.

Similarly, it has claimed the recovery of amounts equal to more than Rs 1.7 million misappropriated by NTC's deputy director Shrestha and over Rs 8.9 million by account officer Oli.