Lalitpur, October 6

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara today said lawmaker Hari Narayan Prasad Sah Rauniyar has been suspended after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a graft case yesterday.

The CIAA had filed the case against 12 individuals including lawmaker Rauniyar, his son Sumit Rauniyar, nine government employees and one private consultant. The Speaker said he was notified by the CIAA of automatic suspension of Rauniyar as per the Prevention of Corruption Act.

He said this at an interaction organised in Lalitpur by Parliamentary Affairs Journalists Society today. The speaker said Minister of Industry Matrika Prasad Yadav had written a  letter to him  seeking  action against lawmakers, who during a parliamentary panel meeting ‘falsely accused the ministry and its  officials of ‘shenaniganism in fixing the price of sugar worth Rs 1.69 billion’ but the Parliament would not take action just because of the  minister’s complaint.

“The Parliament and Parliamentary committees are sovereign bodies and not the shadow of the government. The PHC will investigate whether anyone violated any law on the issue of sugar price and if anybody is found guilty, the panel would act as per the law,” he said. Minister Yadav had condemned the ‘false accusation and sought action against those who ‘levelled the false accusation.’ The Speaker said that he was also concerned about some members of the panel who could have conflict of interest but he named them in the parliamentary panel on the respective parties’ recommendation.

Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal lawmaker Rauniyar, Nepali Congress lawmakers Jeep Chhiring Lama and Bahadur Singh Lama (Tamang) who own construction companies are in the Development and Technology Committee of the HoR. The CIAA filed a graft case against Rauniyar, his son and 10 other individuals yesterday.

The Speaker said he summoned Chair of State Affairs and Governance Committee of the House of Representatives ShashiShrestha and sought to know why she barred journalists from two discussions recently to which she said that the discussions were of very sensitive nature and required discussions without journalists being present there.