Special Court revokes its decision‚ convicts Joshi of graft

KESHAV P. KOIRALA & ANANTA RAJ LUITEL

KATHMANDU: Revoking its earlier decision to acquit him, the Special Court on Wednesday convicted former minister and Nepali Congress leader Govinda Raj Joshi of graft charges and imposed a jail sentence of 1.5 years and slapped a penalty of Rs 21.614 million on him.

The full bench of Special Court judges Gauri Bahadur Karki, Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise issued the final verdict on the graft case against Joshi—first filed by the anti-graft body Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in 2004—this afternoon, saying that the property worth Rs 21.614 million that was not on par with his valid source of income would be confiscated. 

In a 42-page verdict, the Special Court said that it is yet to prepare the full text of today's decision.

Saying it did not see any valid source of income for his property worth Rs 21.614 million, out of Rs 39.362 million-property in question, the Court said in its verdict that Joshi was found guilty of corruption as per the provisions in the existing anti-corruption acts.

“As he is convicted of corruption, he will be jailed for one year as per the Clause 20 (2) of Anti-Corruption Act 2059, and for additional six months for he was minister as per the Clause 24 of the same act,” the verdict read, “And, the property worth Rs. 21.616 will be confiscated.”

According to the verdict, the properties to be confiscated includes Toyota landcruiser registered in his name, money deposited in banks, shares and land owned by his kith and kin also. 

Brother-in-law also convicted

The Court further convicted Joshi’s brother-in-law Basudev Pant of being his accomplice, declaring him guilty of being involved in corruption along with Joshi, doing all banking transactions for the properties that Joshi amassed illegally, and helping conceal Joshi’s property—by registering house and land worth Rs 3.113 million in his mother Neer Kumari Pant’s name and then transfering the ownership to Tara Raj Pandey, and by depositing Rs 10 million in her bank account.

The Court slapped a six-month sentence and penalty of Rs 6.556 million on Pant.

The Court directed to confiscate the house and land, transferred to Tara Raj Pandey, in Lalitpur-20. It further said that it would make decision apropos to Pandey’s guilt as a separate case would be filed against him. 

The Court acquitted Neer Kumari Pant, who died six years ago, 

saying it took her age into consideration and concluded that she was not directly involved in the corruption and it was her son who was involved in the transactions in her name. 

The Court ruled that the land registered in Dinesh Raj Joshi’s name would be confiscated. 

It, however, acquitted antoher defendant Ram Krishna Tiwari.

On January 12, 2004, the CIAA had filed the graft case against Joshi charging him of amassing Rs 39.362 million by abusing authority when he was minister for home and education for many years. 

A permanent resident of Tanahun district, Joshi was minister seven times, and served as the home minister thrice.

Saying the Special Court’s judgment in 2006 to acquit Joshi was improper and a thorough analysis was needed in the case, the Supreme Court had returned the case on January 8 this year.

Directing the Special Court to evaluate whether Joshi’s income was beyond the justified sources of income by analysing the merit of the case, the SC had said that the 2006 verdict went against Section 29 of the Corruption Prevention Act, 1991. 

Observing that the provision of the 1991 Act prohibits prosecuting anyone beyond one-year period of his or her retirement from a public post, the Special Court had acquitted him in 2006. But the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed an appeal at the apex court claiming that the acquittal was wrong because prosecution on corruption case does not have any statute of limitation for prosecuting anyone in a graft charge. 

On the basis of the report of the Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property headed by former Justice Bhairav Prasad Lamsal, the CIAA had filed the case against Joshi for accumulating wealth beyond his legitimate sources of income.

Joshi has the option of moving the Supreme Court against the verdict within a period of 70 days. However he will be required to first pay the penalty amount as well as the amount equivalent to that embezzled by him.