Former joint secy Rajbhandari found guilty of graft, sentenced to one year in prison

The Special Court on Tuesday revoked its earlier decision to scrap the corruption case filed against former joint secretary Sabitri Rajbhandari and convicted her of corruption.

A full bench led by Special Court Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise slapped one year jail sentence along with confiscation of the corruption amount of Rs 24.6 million and fine of the same amount.

The Special Court concluded that former joint secretary Aryal had acquired property valued at Rs 24,619,932 by illegal means.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against Rajbhandari at the Special Court on September 1, 2005.

The anti-corruption watchdog had claimed that Rajbhandari had amassed property worth Rs 29,081,821 from unknown and possibly illegal sources.

Rabhandari is the first woman who served in the higher echelons of bureaucracy to be convicted of corruption. She is also the third senior bureaucrat to be convicted within a week.

On November 22, the Special Court had convicted former defense secretary Chakra Bandhu Aryal on charges of corruption and sentenced him to 18 months in jail.

Two days later on November 24, the Special Court again sentenced former joint secretary Arun Kumar Ranjitkar to one year in prison after finding him guilty in a corruption case. nepalnews.com