A hearing is scheduled on the petition filed by former minister Rajkumar Gupta, who is currently in custody in connection with the Lichibari corruption case in Pokhara. The hearing will be conducted by a joint bench of Supreme Court justices Kumar Regmi and Sunil Kumar Pokharel.
Gupta had filed the petition seeking to overturn the Special Court’s order that remanded him to judicial custody in the Lichibari land corruption case. Earlier, a joint bench of justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Nripadhwaj Niraula had directed the court to verify whether petition number 73 filed by other defendants had been registered or not.
In the Lichibari corruption case, a bench of the Special Court comprising Chairperson Sudarshan Dev Bhatt and judges Dilliratna Shrestha and Bidur Koirala had ordered Gupta to be sent to custody for trial.
The Special Court case states that while serving as a minister, Gupta allegedly took a bribe of NPR 5.3 million from a real estate businessman, promising to halt the transfer of a senior official at the Land Revenue Office in Kaski and to appoint the individual as a member of the Land Commission.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has accused Minister Gupta and former minister Ranjita Shrestha of abusing their positions and colluding to accept a bribe of NPR 2.5 million in exchange for providing official favors. However, Gupta has consistently denied the allegations, claiming that the charges against him are false and that he did not take any bribes.
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