Kathmandu, June 11:

The Special Court today issued a clean chit to former Minister of Information and Communications, Jaya Prakash Gupta, in a corruption case filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) five years ago.

Gupta is a sitting Member of Parliament representing Nepali Congress.

A three-member bench of justices Bhoop Dhoj Adhikary, Komal Nath Sharma and Cholendra SJB Rana issued the clean chit to Gupta.

“There is no gap between his legitimate income and the property that belongs to him. He deserves a clean chit because there is no ground to justify the charge sheet,” the bench observed.

The CIAA had filed the charge sheet against him on March 25, 2002 claiming that he had accumulated disproportionate property amounting to Rs 22.4 million.The CIAA had charged Gupta of earning Rs 22.4 million illegally after he became a minister from 1990 to 2002 and that Gupta’s legitimate earning amounted to Rs 3.5 million only.

The CIAA had claimed that Gupta deserved five years of imprisonment and seizure of the illegally amassed Rs 22.4 million.

The Special Court has already given clean chits to former ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka, Govinda Raj Joshi and Inspector Generals of Police Motilal Bohara and Achyut Krishna Kharel.

“We had investigated thoroughly and filed the cases,” a CIAA commissioner said.