She seems to be the first female to be charged with corruption Nepal.


http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2012/nov/nov28/news01.php

 

Former joint secy Rajbhandari found guilty of graft, sentenced to one year in prison

The Special Court on Tuesday revoked its earlier decision to scrap the corruption case filed against former joint secretary Sabitri Rajbhandari and convicted her of corruption.

A full bench led by Special Court Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and members Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise slapped one year jail sentence along with confiscation of the corruption amount of Rs 24.6 million and fine of the same amount.

The Special Court concluded that former joint secretary Aryal had acquired property valued at Rs 24,619,932 by illegal means.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against Rajbhandari at the Special Court on September 1, 2005.

The anti-corruption watchdog had claimed that Rajbhandari had amassed property worth Rs 29,081,821 from unknown and possibly illegal sources.

Rabhandari is the first woman who served in the higher echelons of bureaucracy to be convicted of corruption. She is also the third senior bureaucrat to be convicted within a week.

On November 22, the Special Court had convicted former defense secretary Chakra Bandhu Aryal on charges of corruption and sentenced him to 18 months in jail.

Two days later on November 24, the Special Court again sentenced former joint secretary Arun Kumar Ranjitkar to one year in prison after finding him guilty in a corruption case. nepalnews.com


Sabitri Rajbhandari becomes first woman ex-bureaucrat to get jail term for corruption

 

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Sabitri Rajbhandari has gone down in history, but for all the wrong reasons. Rajbhandari today became the first woman ex-bureaucrat to receive jail sentence for misusing power to amass disproportionate wealth.

The Special Court today slapped one-year jail term and a fine of Rs 24.6 million on retired joint secretary Rajbhandari for corruption she committed during her service.

A three-member bench of Judges Gauri Bahadur Karki, Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise also ordered confiscation of Rs 28.6 million from her. Rajbhandari is the wife of former chief election commissioner Achyut Raj Rajbhandari, who was appointed to the post by the deposed king Gyanendra.

The bench said Rajbhandari had hidden the money earned through illegitimate means in two fixed accounts of the Himalayan Bank Ltd (Patan) and Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Putalisadak) opened in the name of her married daughter Monisa. The court found that Rajbhandari herself was operating the two accounts.

When asked by investigators, Monisa neither accepted the ownership of the amount nor said the money was owned by her mother.

The court found that Rajbhandari had ‘earned’ the amount — by misusing power when she was the chief of the Department of Customs and deposited the money 23 times.

Monisa has been found to have nominated her mother as the heir of the money. Monisa also failed to show the source of the money. However, she had presented a contract of a housing business she claimed to have been running in partnership with Bijaya Goyal and Sheshkrishna. But the company was not registered.

Rajbhandari retired from service about a decade ago.

 

Case that continued for seven years

KATHMANDU: The corruption case against former joint secretary Sabitri Rajbhandari dates back to 2005, the year the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had launched an anti-corruption drive against 22 officials working under the Ministry of Finance. The CIAA had filed the corruption case against Rajbhandari on September 1, 2005, two years after her retirement, but the Special Court had absolved her citing statute of limitations. But the CIAA moved the Supreme Court, challenging the acquittal, and the apex court subsequently asked the Special Court a few months ago to review the case. The CIAA had chargesheeted Rajbhandari claiming that she had amassed Rs 24.6 million by abusing power and had deposited the illegally earned money in the name of her daughter Monisa Rajbhandari (Basnet). The anti-graft body had prosecuted Rajbhandari based on the report of a high-level probe commission which said the Rajbhandari family owned total assets worth Rs 17.5 million, though their legitimate income was only Rs 6 million.

NEPAL: Photo journalists manhandled

Photojournalists assaulted while attempting to take photos of former customs office chief at Tribhuvan International Airport

Nepal News
Thursday, November 17, 2005

AsiaMedia Editor's Note: Reports are unclear as to whether the lifting of the state of emergency on April 30 allows for press freedom, and thus Nepalnews may still be operating under the directives of King Gyanendra.

Family members and relatives of Mrs. Sabitri Rajbhandari, former chief of customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport have manhandled photo-journalists Naresh Shrestha and Rajesh Gurung while they were trying to take snaps of Mrs. Rajbhandari in the court premises. She had been produced before the Special Court in Kathmandu on a graft case.

According to Annapurna Post daily, a group of over a dozen people, including Mrs. Rajbhandari's husband and former chief election commissioner, Keshav Raj Rajbhandari, manhandled journalists duo while they were taking snaps. They seized the camera of photo-journalist Shrestha and manhandled and seized the identity card of Gurung. Shrestha's camera flash was destroyed during the scuffle.

Police later returned the camera of Shrestha but Gurung's I-D card is yet to be returned.

Rights groups and press freedom monitoring agencies have condemned the manhandling of photo journalists, Shrestha and Gurung, and have asked the government to book the culprits. They have also demanded compensation to the journalists for the damage.

"At a time when Nepalese press is under threat from the government, the latest incident highlights threats emanating also from the civil society," said Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), a Kathmandu-based press freedom monitoring group, in a statement on Wednesday. The group also demanded that former CEC Rajbhandari beg public apology for his alleged misbehaviour towards media professionals.

In a separate incident, the District Administration Office (DAO) of Parsa in southern Nepal has sent a letter to Birgunj F. M. asking it to air 'notices only.'

DAO's directive goes against the new media ordinance introduced by the government last month, reports said. The ordinance bars the F. M. radio stations from broadcasting news-related programmes and asks them to air 'information-related programmes' only. The DAO has written a letter to the F. M. at a time when the issue is sub-judice.

Save Independent Radio Movement has condemned the government's latest act of what it called intimidating an independent radio station and has demanded that the DAO withdraw its directive.

60 Karod ko bhrastachar rey OMG
www.ciaa.gov.np/nepali/charge/sabitriraj_bhandari.doc

साथि के कुरा गर्या ? करोड भन्दा कम को कुरा नेपाल मा हुँदैन | प्रति करोड को एक बर्सको हिसाबले ६० बर्स जेल कैद हुनु पर्ने |

के मात्र गर्छ तेत्रो पैसा ? आफ्नो चम्चाहरुमा बाधछ कि के हो ?

60 hoina , 2 crore bhancha

The CIAA manifesto shows 60 krores check the link www.ciaa.gov.np/nepali/charge/sabitriraj_bhandari.doc

hota ni

होला होला ६० करोड नै होला | तर यिनी एरपोर्ट भन्सारको प्रमुख भएको बेलामा (२०५५ - २०५७ ) सम्म अर्थ मन्त्रि र गृह मन्त्रि को को थियो सोचम त | रबिन्द्र नाथ बाजे र बामदेव जी जस्तो लाग्छ | त्यो ६० करोड बाट उहाहरुलाइ कति गयो होला | त्यो समयलाई नेपालको एरपोर्ट भन्सारको इतिहासमा सुबर्ण काल भंचन क्यारे | हुनत फेरी यहाँ मित्रहरु ले फेरी मन्त्रि /नेता लै बिचमा ल्यायो भन्लान , तर त्यो तथ्य हो क्यारे | बरु उनीहरु portfolio diversification गर्न अनि कार्यकर्ता/पार्टी लाइ पोसेर आफ्नो राजनीति दरो बनाउन जान्ने भएकोले नेताहरुले कमाए जति नाङ्गो आँखाले देखिन्न | तेस्मथी अख्तियारको छानबिन अनि मुद्दा दायर गर्ने तरिका पनि गजबको थियो छानी छानी गरे जस्तो , भगवान जाने |