Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Rastriya Prajatantra Party Vice Chairperson Bikram Pandey has been arrested on charges of manipulating the government’s electronic bidding system to secure contracts for his company.
A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested Pandey in Kathmandu on Friday.
Pandey is the owner of Kalika Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the country. He was elected to the House of Representatives from the Chitwan-3 constituency, and also served as Minister for Urban Development.
In 2018, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption case against him over alleged irregularities in the Sikta Irrigation Project. The Supreme Court cleared Pandey of all the charges in 2022. The CIAA has challenged the Special Court’s decision at the Supreme Court.
The CIB team also arrested Tanka Kumar Shrestha, managing director of Bhishan Construction Pvt Ltd, from Samakhusi in Kathmandu on Friday, according to CIB Spokesperson Shiv Kumar Shrestha.
The CIB has recently launched an operation against construction companies accused of hacking the electronic bidding system to obtain government contracts. According to CIB sources, nine construction entrepreneurs have so far been arrested for their alleged involvement in hacking the government’s electronic procurement system to secure contracts.
The probe was initiated after it emerged that some construction firms had been hacking the e-bidding system to win major public contracts. Investigators found that certain contractors allegedly accessed the system before financial proposals were opened and altered submitted documents.
Based on these findings, the Public Procurement Monitoring Office had requested the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police to conduct an investigation. The Cyber Bureau and the CIB had then launched a joint investigation into the case.
