Lawmaker Basnet suspended after graft case is filed

KATHMANDU: Mohan Bahadur Basnet, a Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker and former minister, has been suspended from his parliamentary position.

His parliamentary position was automatically suspended after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption case against him in the Special Court on Thursday for irregularities in the procurement of the Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs).

Fifteen other individuals and two firms have also been named defendants in the case.

CIAA is seeking to recover Rs 3.21 billion from the defendants.

Basnet was elected to the House of Representatives from Sindhupalchowk-2 constituency in the 2022 general election.

Along with Basnet, CIAA has also filed a chargesheet against Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) Chairpersons Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal, former directors Dhanraj Gyawali, Tika Prasad Upreti, Surendralal Hada, Deepesh Acharya, and Bijay Kumar Roy, and deputy directors Revatiram Panth, Suresh Basnet, Hiranya Prasad Bastakoti, Achyutananda Mishra and Sandeep Adhikari