CIAA held 48 corrupts including joint secretary

KATHMANDU: Kathmandu: A team under the subordinate office of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority(CIAA) has conducted 30 sting operations in the current fiscal year 2020/21.

The team has so far held 48 people including a joint secretary, four deputy secretaries, bureaucrats and other employees of different offices while in sting operation from mid-July to till date.

The commission has been arresting the employees who engaged in corruption by demanding bribe with a false assurance to the customers to ease that problem that were created intentionally by themselves.

Meanwhile, the commission has arrested 48 people including staffs of government employees, people’s representatives, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and forest rangers for soliciting bribes.

The commission’s office at Itahari arrested four people while Bardibas arrested three, Hetauda held two, Pokhara held two, Butwal arrested eight, Surkhet held one, Kanchanpur held two, Tangal arrested six and Butwal’s liaison offices Nepalgunj arrested two people in 29 sting operations.

Butwal recorded the highest number of sting operations under the command of the police so far in this fiscal year. Butwal, that has conducted eight operations, has arrested the Deputy Secretary or three similar employees, other officials, people’s representatives as well as Nepal Police personnel on the charge of soliciting bribes.

The commission’s office in Butwal has arrested Vijay Rana, Chief Investigation Officer of the Revenue Investigation Office, Butwal on July 4based on information that he was engaged in bribery on a monthly basis. A team of the Commission had arrested Rana and businessman Anil Kumar Jha. The commission arrested them with Rs 200,000 while hiding the amount in Rana’s Toyota of Ba 2 Jha 1767.

Similarly, the commission’s office at Butwal arrested CDE Manish Kumar Aryal, Head of the Infrastructure Development Office, Banke with Rs. 530,000 and Pramod Bhattarai, Chief Conservation Officer of National Parks, Banke, and Bishnu Rokaya, Assistant Conservation Officer with bribery worth Rs 818,000 from unknown source.

Saroj Kumar Pandey, ward chairman of Rohini rural municipality-2, was taken under control by the team of the commission for taking bribe of Rs 20,000 from customers by making false assurance of easing the amount as subsidy.

The commission’s office at Tangal, Kathmandu has held six sting operations so far this fiscal year, including civil servants like the Joint Secretary. A team of the commission had arrested Upadhyaya from Nagdhunga, Kathmandu on August 1 on the basis of information that Chief Administrative Officer of Tulsipur Sub-Metropolis Dang Krishna Kant Upadhyaya had taken unnatural amount of money with him.

The commission has recovered Rs. 1.448 million including vouchers deposited in the bank with Upadhyaya. He is currently under investigation.

The team had arrested Santosh Shah from Dhading on the basis of a complaint against for taking bribe from the employees of the Drinking Water Branch Office. The team of the commission had confiscated Rs. 822,000 from the vehicle by along with the voucher deposited in the bank.

Similarly, a team of the Commission at Tangal arrested Parbat Poudel, an engineer of Belkotgadhi Municipality, Nuwakot on Saturday, for taking bribe for development work. It started further investigation against Poudel, for taking bribe of Rs 75,000 from the customers.

Similarly, the commission’s office in Itahari, had taken under control to Ram Babu Shah, division head of Forest Division Office Sunsari with Rs 553,000 based on the information that the source of the illegal amount has not been revealed. The commission is making a further investigation to him.

The Rampur Thoksila Area Police Office of Udayapur had arrested six persons including Shiva Narayan Yadav, Chief of Sub-Division Office, Mainamani, Udayapur and handed them over to the commission’s office in Itahari on August 11. The commission has started investigation after arresting them with a bribe of Rs 17,000.

Similarly, the commission’s office in Hetauda has arrested Ishwori Prasad Jaiswal, head of Nepal Electricity Authority, Hetauda (Bharatpur-Bardaghat 220 KVA) transmission line project while taking bribe from the service recipients. Jaiswal had demanded bribe from the customers to pay for the completion of the work of transportation and cutting down the trees within the construction area of the transmission line.

Among those arrested in the sting operation are the people’s representatives from joint secretary level to ward’s chairman. After receiving complaints that the commission usually arrests only junior staff on the basis of solicitation of bribes, the commission has arrested one joint secretary and four deputy secretaries in the first four months of this fiscal year.

The commission said that the commission would take necessary action on the basis of complaints and information regardless to the rank of the person. According to the commission, in the last two fiscal years alone, it had arrested and investigated 60 percent of the employees above the official level in the Gazette and is still arresting them.

The commission assured that it has been conducting a sting operation using security precautions even at a time of coronavirus pandemic. Stating that the commission is always open for the service recipients, CIAA urged not to engage in corruption. RSS