Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Special Court has convicted Sunil Poudel, the then executive director of the National Information Technology Center and former managing director of Nepal Telecom, in the National Payment Gateway (NPG) corruption case.
A division bench of Special Court Chairperson Tek Narayan Kunwar and Member Murari Babu Shrestha delivered the verdict on Friday.
Poudel will be sentenced in the next hearing. He is currently in custody of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
The CIAA had filed a corruption case against Poudel and eight other people including Secretary Madhu Kumar Marisini. Except for Poudel, all others have been acquitted.
Secretary Maraisni was charged with corruption for allegedly allocating budget for the procurement of the payment gateway by circumventing the process when he was the head of the Budget Division (Joint Secretary) at the Ministry of Finance.
The National Payment Gateway, which was procured six years ago with an estimated Rs 232 million, has yet to come into operation.
The CIAA stated in its charge sheet the nine accused embezzled funds through collusion and conspiracy.
Apart from Poudel and Marasini, the CIAA had filed corruption cases against Sanjay Sharma, the then chairperson of NITC; Pranita Upadhyay, the then executive director of NITC; Sunil Poudel, the then executive director of NITC; and Safal Shrestha, the then director of NITC; Ramesh Pokharel, the then assistant director of NITC; Nim Bahadur Oli, the then accounts officer of NITC; Ram Bahadur Budha, the then accounts officer of NITC; and Ram Sharan Gayak, a computer engineer at NITC.
