Jun 11, Kathmandu- A second corruption case has been filed against Sarlahi's Bagmati Municipality chief Bharat Thapa.

According to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, during the investigation into the complaint of irregularities in the sale and distribution of river products such as stone, gravel, sand, etc., excavated during the construction of the first Bagmati Fish Pond (Bharat Lake), he earned this amount corruptly.

The authority concluded that Thapa, in collusion with various interest groups, illegally excavated stone, gravel, sand and other forest products for the construction of a fish pond in the forest area under the Sagarnath Forest Development Project under the federal government. According to the authority's report, it has also been found that a wrong document has been prepared stating that the preliminary examination report has been approved.

According to the authority, Bagmati Municipal Corporation has prepared a project of detailed report (PDR) for the fish pond, but it has not approved the master plan for the construction of the multi-purpose fish pond. Similarly, they have proceeded with the construction of a fish pond (currently a lake) without taking permission to use the flow of the river.

It has been found that 1 million 788 thousand 264 cubic meters of fish pond-1 and 2 million 184 thousand 927 cubic meters of forest from Bagmati fish pond-2 were harvested and 39 lakh 73 thousand cubic meters were mined without the approval of Sagarnath Forest Development Project and Nepal Government.

During the construction of the pond, only 3 million 359 thousand cubic meters were spent and the balance was seen and the forest yield that was not reached was 1 million 340 thousand cubic meters, according to the authority. The authority has filed a corruption case claiming that the price of insufficient quantity is 268 million rupees and adding 13 percent value added tax, the loss is 302.9 million rupees.

Earlier, another case was filed against him on charges of corruption amounting to 53.3 million rupees. Another case has been filed while the said case is pending in the special court.

In the latest case, City Deputy Mayor Leela Kumari Muktan, Chief Administrative Officer Bimal Kumar Pokharel, Planning Branch Chief Engineer Sagar Paudel, Accounts Officer Bishwaraj Pokharel and District Coordination Committee, Sarlahi Chief Methur Chaudhary have also been made accused.