The Special Court has sentenced Managing Director of Nepal Telecom and then Deputy Director of National Information Technology Center (NITC) Sunil Paudel to nine years in prison and fined him Rs 232.75 million for corruption in the procurement of the National Payment Gateway system.
A joint bench of Special Court Judges Tek Narayan Kunwar and Murari Babu Shrestha announced the quantum of punishment for Paudel on Tuesday.
On April 19, the bench of Kunwar and Shrestha had convicted Paudel of corruption in the procurement of the National Payment Gateway system but acquitted eight others including Secretary Madhu Marasini in the case.
Along with former finance secretary Marasini, the then executive director of NITC Sanjay Sharma, the then executive director of NITC Pranita Upadhyaya, the then director of NITC Safal Shrestha, the then assistant director of NITC Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, the then account officers of NITC Nim Bahadur Oli and Ram Bahadur Budha, and computer engineer with NITC Ram Sharan Gayak were acquitted in the case.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against the nine on October 2 last year charging them with corruption in the procurement of the National Payment Gateway system.
The anti-graft body had accused Marasini, who was then chief of the Budget and Program Division of the Finance Ministry, of allocating budget for procurement of equipment for the National Payment Gateway without completing the necessary stages for budget allocation even though that was not included in the policies and programs. It had claimed that procurement worth Rs 250 million was made without including necessary documents related to preparations.
The CIAA had sought claims of Rs 232.75 million and imprisonment of Sharma, Upadhyaya, Paudel, Budha, Pokharel, Gayak and Marasini, and claims of Rs 1.79 million from Shrestha.
