Kathmandu. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a petition at the Special Court against two ministers of the KP Sharma Oli-led government in the Pokhara land scam. According to a source at the Special Court, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has reached the Special Court naming former ministers as defendants.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a corruption case against then Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Raj Kumar Gupta and then Minister for Land, Management, Urban and Poverty Alleviation Ranjita Shrestha. According to CIAA sources, 5 middlemen including two ministers have also been named as defendants.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is preparing to file a case against former ministers Gupta and Shrestha over the Pokhara Lichibari scam. On July 11, an audio clip of Gupta, the then Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration, taking a bribe of Rs 5.3 lakh, was made public. He had taken the amount with the promise of transferring the chief of the Land Revenue Office in Kaski and managing a suitable person.

Minister Gupta had resigned after an audio clip went viral on social media promising to register the land and appoint a suitable person as the head of the Land Revenue.

An audio clip of the then Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Balaram Adhikari, taking bribe from Sujan Lama of Pokhara has also surfaced. It was revealed that Ranjita Shrestha, who was also the chairperson of the Civil Liberation Party, had also taken money from time to time. He had sent a message saying, “I need cash, I will send a driver.”