COMMUNICATION MINISTER GUPTA FIRST INCUMBENT MINISTER TO BE CONVICTED I

COMMUNICATION MINISTER GUPTA CONVICTED, JAILED
Kathmandu, 22 Feb.: Communications Minister Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta became the first incumbent minister to be convicted
Tuesday of corruption charge by a two-member bench of the supreme court.

Vice-chairman Rajkishor Yadav is expected to takeover Gupta’s party responsibilities.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala inducted Gupta, into his cabinet as communication minister; he was first elected to the House of Representatives from Saptari-1 in 1994 and again in 1999 and was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly (CA) from Saptari-2
on a ticker of (MPRF) in 2008; he joined MPRF after quitting NC.

Gupta served as the minister for information and communications, and minister for agriculture from August 22, 2008 to 2009.

Co-chairman Gupta quit MPRF of Upendra Yadav, 23May 2011 and launched the latest party with support of 13 lawmakers.
Gupta linked his conviction on corruption charge to the launch
of the terai issues in the south bordering India.
Gupta was a journalist and never raised the issue when he was
Minister first in the cabinet of Girija Prasah Koirala and then Sher Bahadur Deuba; Gupta joined Deuba on NC after differences with Koirala.
‘I’ve been jailed with corruption charge because of the launch of the
struggle for the people of Madesh I’ve been penalized not against me personally but against the struggle and the movement .The movement won’t end with me behind bars.”
The former communications minister follows another senior NC leader and minister of the Koirala Chiranjivi Wagle at Dillibazar Khor.
The supreme court has revived cases against two other influential former NC ministers Khum Bhadur Khadka and Govinda Raj Joshi against whom a lower court dismissed corruption charges of CIAA on a technicality.
Gupta automatically forfeited his ministerial post and membership of the constituent assembly/parliament.
Gupta is chairman of MJFN (Republican) whose central committee meets Wednesday to discuss the conviction.
A front of ruling Madeshi parties is also discussing the conviction.
Gupta was fined Rs 8.4 million and jailed for 18 months.
Woman justice Sushila Karki and Tarkaraj Bhatta overturned a verdict of a
special court.
CIAA charged Gupta sing for illicit earnings of Rs 20.8 million
Gupta surrendered soon after the stunning court verdict seeking a 20 percent discount on fine and jail term.in writing
"I will not have any meeting with you [journalists] from today onwards as a political activist and leader," Gupta told reporter at the court premises.
:I have been with you journalist friends for the past 20-25 years but I will not be with you anymore," said Gupta.
The apex also said a lower court gave an erroneous judgment in the Gupta case and ordered judges Bhoop Dhoj Adhikari, Cholendra SJB Rana and Komal Adhikari be punished

The Himayayan Times adds: Supreme Court has concluded that Gupta amassed Rs 11.9 million during the period between 1992 and 2002 when he held positions including press advisor to the prime minister, minister at different ministries at different times and member of the then parliament. The court said Gupta earned only 3.5 million rupees from legitimate sources while he amassed 8.4 million rupees from unknown sources. The court also said that Gupta had just Rs 22,000 as savings before he started assuming the post of press advisor to then prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala in 1992.

The court said that Gupta does not have legitimate sources of income for the following movable and immovable property.

Land Rover jeep worth Rs 1.8 million and Sunny Nissan car worth Rs 0.66 million

Rs 0.45 and Rs 0.36 million deposited at Bank of Kathmandu and Bangladesh Bank respectively in the name of his wife Sarita Puri

Rs 0.2 million deposited at Standard Chartered Bank in Gupta’s name.

Rs 5.36 million withdrawn from different banks but kept hidden by Gupta.

The court has ordered Kathmandu District Court to confiscate all this illegal property and deposit it in government funds.

Gupta will also join former minister, lawmaker and NSP (D) Chairman
Shyam Sundar Gupta who has been charged for abduction for ransom of a Kathmandu businessman and is also in jail at Dilli Bazzr khor as hearings of the charge continue.
But Shyan Sundar continues as lawmaker as he hasn’t been charged for
corruption; parliament membership of automatically according to parliamentary rule proceedings with such charge.
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LOAD-SHEDDNG REDUCED BY ONE MORE HOUR
Kathmandu, 22 Feb.; Load-shedding has been reduced to 10 from 11 hours every day from Thursday,
Weekly power outage will now be 75 hours.
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BANKERS THREATEN
HALT TO IC TRADE
Kathmandu, 22 Feb Commercial banks have threatened to stop ransactions in Indian Currency (IC), including issue of demand drafts, if the Department of Revenue Investigation -- which is investigating cases of IC misappropriation through fake customs declarations -- took action against implicated bank staff, Milan Mani Sherpa writes in Republica.

The bankers issued their warning after Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) on Tuesday decided to ´protect the image of banks´ and converged on protesting ´possible malafide´ action against bank staff by the revenue investigation authority.

DRI, which has been investigating the cases since five months back, has concluded that eight shady traders based in Birgunj were largely behind the siphoning off of IC totalling 1.24 billion (Rs 1.98 billion) from the banking system by producing fake import documents from customs.

As existing norms make bank staff liable for cross-checking the authenticity of documents while issuing payment drafts, DRI, in its report to the Ministry of Finance, has indicated the possible involvement of the staff of nine banks in the racket.

The banks through which the racket operated include Citizens Bank International, NIC Bank, Everest Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bank Limited, Siddhartha Bank, Laxmi Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and Nepal Bangladesh Bank.

In this connection, DRI last week completed recording the statements of bank staff and the banks as well.

“We do not know what exactly the findings of the DRI are. But what we know for sure is staff of the banks issued the payments based on the customs documents. If the nefarious traders managed to deceive them, that does not prove they are guilty,” said NBA President Ashok Rana, defending NBA´s decision.

Other bankers, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that if the IC misappropriations took place it is because of laxity at the customs offices. “Hence, DRI should first punish the customs staff and customs agents, instead of attacking bank staff.”

Officials at DRI, meanwhile, expressed surprise at the reaction from bankers. “The case is still under investigation and we are still interrogating the nefarious traders. In such a context, the bankers, in issuing a warning instead of supporting the investigations, are only exhibiting immaturity,” commented a senior DRI official.

DRI had traced the IC misappropriations when it raided Birgunj-based firms Laxmi Traders, Rehan Traders, Maha Laxmi Enterprises, Shyam Galla Store, GS Traders, Maxwell Computers, Digital World and Jay Mata Di International.

Further investigations disclosed that they had managed to siphon off IC totalling 1.24 billion from 15 branches of nine banks by producing 2,341 fake customs declaration forms.

Nepal Rastra Bank, which carried out investigations of its own, has reported to DRI that the IC misappropriations took place mainly because the banks failed to adopt a Know Your Customer (KYC) approach-- keeping records of customer details -- leaving a loophole for the crooked to use bank staff for illegal purposes.
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STATE FIRM SELLING PILFERED FERTILIZER PACKAGES
Kathmandu, 22 Feb :The eastern regional office of Agriculture Inputs Company has been found selling less quantity of urea than mentioned in the package. It was revealed when the police raided a warehouse of the state-owned company on Tuesday based on instruction of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Khilnath Dhakal writes iin Republica from Biratnagar.

The raid was conducted based on complaints filed by clients who charged the firm of selling pilfered sacks of urea.

The company sells 50-kg sacks of urea at a price of Rs 900 each. But when the police weighed the sealed sacks on Tuesday, the sacks contained 2 kg to 10.5 kg less urea than mentioned in the label.

Following the raid, the state-owned company has stopped selling the fertilizer indefinitely and initiated investigation into the matter. But farmers are not satisfied.

“The incident indicates that we might have been cheated for a long time. This is not fair,” visibly angry Ramdev Yadav, a farmer of Buddhanagar-3, told Republica.

According to Agriculture Inputs Company, it imports urea manufactured by Brahmaputra Bheri Fertilizer Company located in Assam of India as per the agreement that the government has signed with Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of Assam.

Currently, the state-owned company has an inventory of 4,373 sacks of urea. And an additional 29,788 sacks of fertilizer that have arrived from India are yet to be unloaded. Of this, 4,000 sacks have been ferried to Itahari branch of the company, 2,050 to Birtamod, 1,980 to Dhankuta, 1,680 to Rajbiraj and 300 sacks to Khotang.

“We don´t know how the sealed sacks fell short of weight mentioned in the label,” said Hari Prasad Gajurel, chief of fertilizer distribution center at the eastern regional office of the company. He, however, acknowledged that the centre never checks weight of each sack it receives.

Superintendant of Police Pradhyumna Karki said: “It would not have created a fuss had the sacks contained half or a kilogram less than the mentioned weight. But shortfall of 2-10.5 kg is too much to
ignore.”
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