Kathmandu, January 11

The Special Court today convicted seven employees of mid-western University, Surkhet, in a corruption case filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority for embezzling university funds.

According to Deputy Registrar of the SC Jagannath Paudel, among the seven convicted employees of the university are Registrar Thakendra Prasad Giri, lecturers Ganesh Bahadur Raut, Sudhan Gauli employees Kamal KC, Paras Ram Giri, Jivan Kumar Thapa and Gagan Singh Bohara.

According to court sources, Thakendra Prasad Giri and Ganesh Bahadur Rawat were slapped a jail term of 19 months and seven months, respectively.

Similarly, Sudhan Gauli and Kamal KC were both slapped a jail sentence of seven months while Kamal KC, Jivan Kumar Thapa and Gagan Singh Bohara were all handed down a jail term of six months.

All of them were also slapped with fines.

Among the 16 defendants, nine were acquitted by the court. They include Vice-chancellor of the University Padam Lal Devkota, Chair of Service Commission Navraj Kadel, member of the Service Commission Shri Ram Prasad Upadhyay, Deans Ram Chandra Aryal, Lalmani Acharya, Keshar Singh Rana, Masta Bahadur Garanja, Pitambar Dhakal and Senior Assistant Ganesh Bahadur KC.

CIAA had filed cases against the defendants on August 24, 2014, accusing them of embezzling university funds.

The verdict was delivered by a bench of Judges comprising Bhupendra Prasad Rai, Pawan Kumar Sharma and Narendra Kumar Siwakoti.