The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has summoned representatives from two German companies to appear in connection with the e-passport procurement case.
On Wednesday, the CIAA issued a public notice in The Rising Nepal, directing two German companies to appear either in person or virtually within the specified date and time.
The notice requests the presence of two representatives each from Muehlbauer ID Services and Veridos, the two companies that secured the e-passport printing contract.
The individuals summoned are Gerhard Maurer and Pavle Rakic from Muehlbauer ID Services, and Fabiola Bellersheim and Florian Pacquelin from Veridos.
The notice states that they have been notified via email about the designated date and time for their appearance at the CIAA.
The commission has warned that if the notice is ignored, legal action will be taken according to the prevailing laws of Nepal.
In the procurement process, Muehlbauer ID Services was awarded the contract for Package 1, which includes pre-enrollment, enrollment, data management, and delivery system. Veridos secured Package 2, covering personalization, quality control, and packaging system.
As part of its investigation into the e-passport procurement case, the CIAA detained Tirtha Raj Aryal, director general of the Department of Passports, on June 16. Sunil Kumar KC, the department's director of information technology, was also taken into custody.
Aryal was arrested shortly after visiting the Prime Minister's Office on the day of his detention.
The e-passport investigation has also implicated former foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba. An investigation team from the CIAA visited her Budhanilkantha residence on Tuesday to serve a notice requiring her to appear for a statement.
The Deuba residence is currently being demolished following an arson attack during the Gen Z movement on September 9 last year.
The Deuba couple is currently abroad. Even when they were in the country, they had been living in a rented house in Maharajgunj following the arson attack on their residence.
Rajendra Shrestha, ward chairman of Budhanilkantha Municipality-2, informed Setopati that the CIAA team contacted him to serve the notice.
"The CIAA team contacted me because they needed to serve a notice to Arzu Rana Deuba for investigation. I facilitated their contact with Bhanu Deuba," he said.
Bhanu is the personal secretary to former prime minister and outgoing Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba.
When asked about the matter, Bhanu Deuba said that he had no information regarding the serving of the notice to former foreign minister Rana.
The Deuba couple is currently in Hong Kong. They are also under investigation by the Department of Money Laundering Investigation. Fearing arrest, they recently sent letters via email and courier to the department – with a copy to the Special Court – committing to cooperate with the investigation.
The department had previously obtained an arrest warrant for them from the Kathmandu District Court. It had also corresponded with Interpol to issue a red notice against them.
The Deuba couple, through their legal representative, appealed to the Supreme Court, which subsequently quashed the arrest warrant issued by the district court, ruling that the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Special Court.
