NEA transformer scam : Rs 240m bail sought from 21 NEA officials, two Chinese

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    KATHMANDU, Sept 17:

    cart_transThe Special Court has sought Rs 240 million as bail from 21 Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) officials and two Chinese suppliers in the substandard transformer scam.

    A bench of the court Chairman Kedar Prasad Chalise and members Mohan Raman Bhattarai and Bhupendra Prasad Rai on Tuesday sought bail amount from 23 defendants out of 26.

    Two defendants, a Chinese national and a Nepali agent, are absconding while the Special Court released former NEA former managing director Jivendra Jha on condition that he would appear before the court as and when summoned.

    The court has sought Rs 175 million in bail from Hu Zheng Qiang, General Manager of Hubei Sunlight Electric Company Limited, China and Rs 40 million from NEA Managing Director Rameshwar Yadav.

    The court has sought Rs 15 million from Zou Yi Tian, authorized representative of Hubei Sunlight. The court said the Chinese firm had profiteered by supplying substandard transformers, which had aluminum coils instead of copper coils.

    Similarly, the court has sought Rs 100,000 from former acting managing director Tikaram BC, and Rs 150,000 each from former general manager Chiranjivi Sharma Paudel and from Deputy Director Harish Bahadur Pal.

    The court has stated that Managing Director Yadav was directly involved in intentionally causing loss to the NEA.

    Also, the Special court has sought Rs 100,000 each from NEA accounts officers Suresh Kumar Katuwal and Sushil Prasad Khanal, and Rs 1.5 million each from Manager Shandu Yadav, Assistant Manager Surendra Prasad Paneru and Manager Shekhar Kumar Dutt.

    Likewise, the court ordered Manager Surendra Raj Joshi to pay Rs 1.5 million, Manager Kailash Prasad Atal Rs 150,000, central store chief and engineer Narayan Prasad Chaudhary Rs 100,000, and store assistant Saroj Shrestha Rs 25,000 as bail.

    Similarly, the Mahesh Prasad Acharya has been ordered to pay Rs 150,000, Dev Prasad Poudel and Krishna Bahadur KC each Rs 100,000, Pramod Rijal Rs 50,000, Bharat Rupakheti Rs 75,000, and Madan Raj Chapaigain and Prajjwal Pandey Rs 1.5 million each.

    The suppliers implicated in the case are Li Dao Gu, chairman of Hubei Sunlight, the company´s authorized representative Zou Yi Tian, General Manager Hu Zheng Qiang and Nepal´s local representative Amar Rajbhandari. The CIAA has demanded two year sentence for the suppliers.

    Though the court has sought bail amount, eight accused including Managing Director Yadav cannot be released on bail as another corrpution case is sub judice at the court.

    Meanwhile, Zou, Semdhu Yadav and Shekhar Kumar Yadav were released on Tuesday itself after they submitted bank guarantee equal to their bail amount. NEA officials Acharya, Dev Sharma Poudel, Thapa, KC, Rupakheti, Rijal, Chapagain, Pandey, Chiranjivi Sharma Poudel and Paneru were also released after they paid their bails.

    Hu has been kept at Dilli Bazaar jail while Managing Director Yadav is in the custody of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

    The CIAA had filed corruption cases against 22 NEA officials and four suppliers including three Chinese nationals, at the Special Court.

    The CIAA claimed that they have caused a loss of Rs 411.840 million to the NEA and has demanded confiscation of property worth the same amount. The CIAA has also sought from them penalties equal to the loss amount.

    While the CIAA has sought 10 years jail for all the accused NEA officials, it has demanded additional penalties and sentences for top officer bearers, who were in decision-making positions. CIAA has sought two years jail for the Chinese suppliers.

    Earlier, lab tests conducted in Nepal found that the transformers did not have the specified weight and had aluminum coils instead of copper. The transformers have also been blamed for excessive power leakage while many cases of transformer explosion were reported over the past few years.

    Source : Republica

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    Power authority chief‚ supplier sent to jail

    KATHMANDU: The Special Court today set bail amount for the accused Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) officials in transformer purchase scam. They were prosecuted by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) .

    A three-member bench of judges Kedar Prasad Chalise, Mohanraman Bhattarai and Bhupendra Rai set the bail after hearing concluded today. Suspended Managing Director Rameshwar Yadav could not post the bail, so he was sent to CIAA custody for further inquiry on another case while supplier Hu Zheng Qiang, General Manager, Hubei Sunlight Co Ltd, who had to pay the bail amount of Rs 175 million, was sent to Dillibazaar jail after he failed to submit the bail.

    Zou Yi Tian, authorised representative of Chinese company Hubei Sunlight Co Ltd, on whom Rs 15 million was imposed as bail was also released after Himalayan Bank gave bank guarantee, according to Nirmala Paudel, deputy registrar of the Special Court.

    According to Paudel, those officials on whom a bail amount of less than Rs 1.5 million was imposed were released after they deposited the amount in either cash or presented bank guarantee. Those who could not post the bail were sent to CIAA custody to proceed with inquiry into other cases. On August 25, the CIAA had prosecuted the officials accused of amassing

    Rs 411 million in the transformer purchase scam, including Managing Director Yadav. Stating that the top officials had defrauded Rs 318 million during the purchase deal, the anti-graft constitutional body demanded up to 12-year jail sentence for them and confiscation of the amassed amount as well as a fine equal to the amount amassed.

    CIAA has sought two years jail sentence for the suppliers, China-based Hubei Sunlight Co Ltd officials.

     

    Big fish in big trouble

     

    Accused Bail amount

    Managing Director Rameshwar Yadav Rs 40 million

    Manager Sendhu Yadav Rs 1.5 million

    Assistant Manager Surendra Prasad Paneru Rs 1.5 million

    Manager Suresh Raj Joshi Rs 1.5 million

    Manager Kailash Prasad Atal Rs 1.5 million

    Former official Bharat Rupakheti Rs 1. 5million

    Former official Pramod Rijal Rs 1.5 million

    Madan Raj Chapagain Rs 1. 5million

    Prajwal Pandey Rs 1.5 million

    Former acting executive director Tikaram BC Rs 1lakh

    Former general manager Chiranjiwi Sharma Paudel Rs 1.5 lakh

    Assistant Director Harish Bahadur Pal Rs 1.5 lakh

    Account Officer Suresh Kumar Katuwal Rs 1 lakh

    Account Officer Sushil Prasad Khanal Rs 1 lakh

    Engineer Narayan Prasad Chaudhari Rs 1 lakh

    Mahesh Prasad Acharya Rs 1 lakh

    Former official Dev Sharma Paudel Rs 1 lakh

    Former official Krishna Bahadur Thapa Rs 1 lakh

    Former official Krishna Bahadur KC Rs 1 lakh

    Store Assistant Saroj Shrestha Rs 25,000

    Hubei General Manager Hu Zheng Qiang Rs 175 million

    Hubei Representative Zou Yi Tian Rs 15 million

     

    Source : The Himalayan Times