Mohan Bahadur Basnet, mayor of Nagarjun Municipality in Kathmandu, has been found guilty in a corruption case.
A bench of Special Court Judges Tek Narayan Kunwar and Ram Bahadur Thapa convicted Basnet on Friday.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against Basnet in the Special Court on December 30 last year, accusing him of money laundering and taking bribe.
It was alleged that Raju Prasad Kandel, chairman of Padma Colony, had given a bribe to acquire land in the name of his company. The CIAA claimed that Kandel had paid Basnet a bribe of Rs 92.25 million.
The court order stated that Basnet was found to have taken the bribe.
The court also found him guilty of money laundering, for which the CIAA had claimed Rs 131.27 million from him.
The anti-corruption body had also named Basnet’s wife, Urmila, as a defendant. However, the court acquitted her on the charges of money laundering and taking bribe.
“In the case of the other defendant, Urmila Basnet, as there is no evidence in the case file to prove that she knowingly accepted or facilitated the payment of the bribe money, she is acquitted,” said the court order.
Kandel, chairman of Padma Colony, was found guilty on the charge of bribery. However, the court acquitted him on the money laundering charge citing insufficient evidence.
The sentencing for the guilty has been scheduled for June 30.
Basnet was elected mayor of Nagarjun Municipality from the Nepali Congress.
