KATHMANDU, JUNE 5
Two members of the House of Representatives have been suspended in the last month after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed corruption charges against them, and four lawmakers have already been suspended, with powerful leaders implicated.
On Thursday, the anti-graft body filed a corruption case against CPN (Unified Socialist) Party president and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in the Patanjali land swap case, resulting in his automatic suspension as a legislator in the House of Representatives.
Previously, on May 15, the CIAA filed a case against Nepali Congress lawmaker and former Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohan Bahadur Basnet on charges of involvement in the Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (TERAMOCS) case. Basnet's lawmaker position was also automatically suspended after the case was filed.
Along with Nepal and Basnet, four members of the Lower House of the Federal Parliament are currently suspended. Four of the 275 members elected in the December 20, 2022, elections have been suspended. Earlier, Parliamentarian Rabi Lamichhane, President of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), has been suspended since December 23, 2024, after a money laundering case was filed against him related to cooperative funds embezzlement.
Lamichhane, who is also the former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, is serving detention in Butwal prison over his alleged involvement in the cooperative scam.
Meanwhile, the current home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, has also been pulled into a visit visa scam. Oppositions have been vehemently demanding his resignation in the Parliament.
CPN-UML lawmaker Top Bahadur Rayamajhi has been suspended since June 16, 2023, after the police filed a case in the Kathmandu District Court in relation to the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.
Geeta Basnet, a Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmaker, has been on the run for a year after being accused of irregularities in cooperative deposits. Basnet has been fleeing since an arrest warrant was issued on April 26, 2024.
Another lawmaker has been dragged into an investigation. After the Supreme Court cleared the way for a criminal investigation into a 20-year-old incident involving former Lower House Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota, who is also the Vice President of the CPN-MC, there are differing views on the investigation and prosecution of him.
However, senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi stated that the court order would require the police to arrest Sapkota and conduct the probe.
