The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has written to the Home Ministry to suspend the then Chief District Officer (CDO) of Dolakha Khagendra Prasad Rijal for taking bribe.
Spokesperson at the constitutional anti-graft body Pradeep Kumar Koirala issuing a press statement on Tuesday stated that it has written to the ministry to suspend Rijal when he is under investigation for corruption stating he can destroy evidence against him and impede investigation.
Spokesperson at the ministry Kedar Nath Sharma told Setopati that it has yet to receive the CIAA letter and revealed that the ministry has already transferred Under-secretary Rijal to the reserve pool of General Administration Ministry. "Transfer to the reserve pool is like being punished," Sharma added.
The Home Ministry on Friday had recalled Rijal after revelation of taking bribe from the family of accused persons.
Rijal had received Rs 135,000 from three accused of two different cases on Wednesday. He had taken Rs 100,000 in one case and Rs 35,000 in another but had issued receipts of Rs 10,000 and 14,000 respectively.
He had returned the extra Rs 111,000 on Thursday after the incident was made public.
Case Background
One Kumar Lama Moktan of Mailung-4 in the district was in police custody for 24 days on charge of thrashing an elected people's representative.
Moktan's wife Renu Tamang handed over Rs 100,000 to Rijal claiming that the latter sought the amount after completion of the bail hearing on Tuesday. "I bowed down to many and collected the sum after the CDO warned he will jail my husband for eight-nine years if I don't bring Rs 100,000," Tamang claimed. "I handed over Rs 100,000 after he chided me saying this is not a shop to bargain when I requested to lower the amount."
Rijal asked Tamang to take receipt from the litigation section but the bill only mentioned Rs 10,000.
Rijal is similarly accused to have taken Rs 35,000 from the family of Udim Tamang and Indra Bahadur Tamang of Kalinchowk-1 but issued a receipt of just Rs 14,000.
The families returned to the District Administration Office on Thursday after finding that the receipts were for lower amounts.
The CDO, the families claim, then took them to his quarter and returned the extra amount requesting them to not make the incident public. But they contacted local journalists and briefed the whole incident to make it public.
