Former Karnali minister surrenders, released on bail 

Kathmandu, September 4 

Former minister of physical infrastructure development of Karnali Province Khadka Bahadur Khatri, who has been indicted in a banking offence case, surrendered before Patan High Court today. He was released on bail of Rs 500,000.  

Patan High Court had, on August 13, ordered the police to produce Khatri before the court within three days following which Karnali Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi sacked him.  

Police had filed a banking offence case against Khatri, Raju Prasad Shrestha, Chhabi Lal Dhakal, Randhir Tumba and Dev Jung Shahi for submitting two fake bank guarantees to Bhojpur Technical Committee between June and November 2016.  

Raju Prasad Shrestha is yet to surrender before the court. Other defendants are also out on bail.  

As per the charge sheet, the defendants prepared two fake bank guarantees of Rs 10.1 million of Agriculture Development Bank, Bhojpur, and submitted them to Bhojpur Technical Committee. 

According to Khatri’s lawyer Advocate Tikaram Bhattarai, his client told the court that he was innocent in the case, as he had delegated authority to Randhir Tumba to represent his company. Khatri further told the court that he did not sign any forged document and did not receive any benefit from the alleged criminal act. Khatri is a contractor and runs KSK Construction in Surkhet.Â