Kathmandu, November 5

The Special Court today cleared the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) officials from corruption charges.

Justices Mohan Narayan Bhattarai, Bhupendra Prasad Rai and Narendra Kumar Shiwakoti delivered the final verdict in the case filed by Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority against 10 CAN officials and eight others. The CIAA had filed the corruption case on June 9 last year accusing the officials and contractors of embezzling more than Rs 10.43 million.

Spokesperson of Special Court Bhadrakali Pokhrel said all the defendants were handed over clean chit. “At the moment, I can say that all the 18 defendants have been cleared from all the accusations,” he said. “The detailed full text of the verdict will come out in due course.” CAN President Tanka Aangbuhang Limbu, Vice-presidents Chatur Bahadur Chand, Sunilman Amatya and Binod Kumar Mainali, General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel, Treasurer Raju Babu Shrestha, Members Kiran Rana, Thakur Pratap Thapa, Thakur Prasad Pahadi and Purna Bahadur Lama were the CAN officials charged by the CIAA.

Likewise, Engineer of National Sports Council Arun Upadhyay, proprietor of the Gaura Constructions Pvt Ltd Surya Adhikari, Ram Sharan Deuja of R Komal Constructions, Krishna Prasad Pandey of Nawa Nirman Company, Pawan Pathak of Crown Nepal Constructions and Development Pvt Ltd, Rajkumar Khadka of Khadka Construction Pvt Ltd, Director of Design Shell Architects Pvt Ltd Umesh Man Shrestha and Engineer Chhabilal Adhikari of Sifan Engineering Consultancy were also booked by anti-graft body.

CIAA had accused the officials of embezzling funds allocated by national and international sources for the construction of cricket stadium in Mulpani, misusing funds allocated for the purchase of sports goods, and sending unrelated persons on foreign trips with the national cricket teams.

“We are yet to receive the full text of the final verdict but we have been cleared of all the charges,” said General Secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel. “After the CIAA charges, we had decided to stay out of the CAN on moral grounds. Now that the Special Courts has cleared us from all the accusations, we will assume office on due course.” The CAN, which had fallen in turmoil due to infighting and the CIAA charge, has been run by 16 out of 31 officials elected from first general assembly in 2011. CAN had scheduled its elective general assembly for Friday and Saturday but NSC on Sunday instructed the cricket governing body to postpone all the election programmes saying it did not meet the procedures.