Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 4:

Former minister Dr Mohammad Mohsin today submitted the bail amount for his former secretary Narayan Hari Aryal, one of the recipients of the Dashain expenditure from the Prime minister’s fund. Aryal was grilled by the Royal Commission for Control of Corruption (RCCC) today for accepting Rs 1.5 million as Dashain expenses. “I did what I was told by the minister,” Aryal later said.

The Commission also grilled Ashok Jha, arrested on April 1 for allegedly taking Rs 15,000 from the general manager of Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN), Ram Chandra Bhatta, posing himself as an RCCC member telling Bhatta that he would settle his case.

Also today, the Commission grilled Dhruba Bahadur Shrestha, executive director of Melamchi Drinking Water Mega-Project, for the alleged irregularities in the contract for building the tunnel.

Meanwhile, Director General of the Department of Forest, Jamuna Krishna Tamrakar, currently under RCCC custody, denied charges levelled against him as “baseless” and that he was “totally ignorant” about the ‘bribe.’