Siraha, March 1

Small Scale Industry Office Lahan Chief Officer Rajendra Kumar Lal Karna was held with Rs 200,000 bribe money from Lahan’s Gramin Chowk-based quarter last evening.

A team from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority held Karna for taking money from an official of Human Rights and Environment Development Centre Udayapur, according to SP Kisan Singh Thapa.

HREDCU and 2 other organisations were selected to launch micro-enterprise development programmes under Small Scale Industry Lahan. They had launched programmes with a budget of Rs 6.8 million for the past 6 months and had released 20 per cent of the total project budget to the organisations. Karna has been accused of demanding 10 per cent commission of the total project budget from development partners.

But, Karna has refuted arguing that an official from HUNDEREC dropped the money without my consent.