CIAA graft slur against ex-NBB top brass

KATHMANDU: Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Thursday filed a case against top retired officials of Nepal Bangladesh Bank and Silver Fibre Textile Mills Pvt Ltd, Nawalparasi, accusing their involvement in a huge corruption scam.

The CIAA accused the former bank officials and the Mills of causing the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) to lose Rs 200 million. The case was registered against the then managing director of the Bank Narendra Bhattarai, assistant general manager Bal Krishna Sharma and officer Ujjwal Pandey; the then acting chief administrator of the EPF Rajesh Rajkarnikar, investment department chief Shashibikram Rana, deputy manager Laxmi Prasad Shrestha, chartered accountant Ravibhushan Vaidya and project analyst Bijaya Kumar Shrestha.

"We tried to produce them before the Special Court but they defied our order to be present in the CIAA," Lalit Bahadur Limbu, Acting Chief Commissioner, CIAA told this daily, "Now we will ask the court to arrest and prosecute them." The consortium led by the Bank had invested to pay the Mill's loan. "We found that they had a nexus," Limbu added. The CIAA also accused Mills proprietors Thakur Pratap Thapa and Jivan Bista, financial advisor Kishor Banskota, Engineer Dinesh Chalise of involvement in the scam.