Former minister and chief of Kalika Construction Bikram Pandey has been released on bail of Rs 40 million by the Special Court on the day he presented himself to the court in connection to the corruption case over construction of canal for Sikta Irrigation Project.
A joint bench of Chairman Baburam Regmi and justices Chandi Raj Dhakal and Narayan Prasad Pokharel sought a bail of Rs 40 million from Pandey on Wednesday and he was released today itself after submitting the bail amount, Registrar at the Special Court Bhim Kumar Shrestha told Setopati.
"Pandey submitted bank guarantee of Rs 40 million from Global IME Bank and left taking a date," he stated.
Pandey came to the court for the first time after filing of the corruption case Wednesday and the bench released him on bail after preliminary hearing.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on December 7, 2018 had lodged a corruption case of over Rs 2 billion against former minister Pandey over the construction of canal for Sikta Irrigation Project.
The CIAA had filed a corruption case against 21 including chief of the contractor company Pandey in the Special Court on Friday.
Chief of the national pride project over the years including Sarva Dev Prasad, Saroj Chandra Pandit, Dilip Bahadur Karki, and Ramesh Basnet, nine senior divisional engineers, three engineers with the Department of Irrigation, managing director of supervision consultant for the project ERMC-ITECO Nepal JV and three engineers have also been charged of corruption.
The CIAA has made claims of Rs 2.13 billion from Pandey, Rs 1.56 billion from Karki and Rs 593.45 million from Pandit. It also claims Rs 24.05 million from ERMC MD Uddhav Raj Chaulagai.
The CIAA has accused the contractor company, project chiefs and engineers of irregularities in construction of the canal.
