Kathmandu, May 20

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today filed a charge-sheet at the Special Court against Rishiram Aryal, former chief administrative officer of Kathmandu-based Tokha Municipality, for allegedly accumulating disproportionate assets worth around Rs 178.3 million.

Aryal, who recently retired as CAO of the municipality, had also served as secretary of then village development committees of Syangja and Kathmandu. He had joined civil service on 16 July 1982 as a VDC secretary (non-gazetted second class officer) in Synagja and was promoted to the post of under-secretary before retirement.

According to the CIAA, Aryal accumulated illegal assets worth Rs 178.3 million until the fiscal 2018-19, but failed to disclose and establish the sources of his wealth. “Of the total assets worth Rs 266 million owned by Aryal, his wife Laxmi Devi and sons Sushil and Sunil, he could not produce supporting evidences for around Rs 178.3 million,” said Joint Secretary Pradip Kumar Koirala, CIAA spokesperson.

The disproportionate amount was invested in land, house, vehicle, shares, children’s study and banks and financial institutions. The anti-graft body has also listed his wife and sons as defendants in the charge-sheet under the Prevention of Corruption Act-2002 for recovery of the amount in question.

The CIAA has sought recovery of Rs 178.3 million, along with an equivalent fine and jail sentence for Aryal as per Section 20 of the act.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 21, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.