March 28: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a case against various employees of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, including its former chairpersons Digambar Jha and Purushottam Prasad Khanal for alleged irregularities.

The anti-graft constitutional body filed the case against them at the special court after finding irregularities in the procurement of Mobile Data Management System (MDMS). The commission filed a claim of Rs 919.8 million against then chairs Jha and Khanal, senior director Anandraj Khanal, deputy director Meen Prasad Aryal, assistant director Binod Chandra Shrestha, director Dipesh Acharya, deputy director Surendra Lal Hada, deputy director Surya Prasad Lamichhane, deputy director Achyutanand Mishra, assistant directors Revatiram Panth, Sandeep Adhikari, Bijay Kumar Raya Yadav, Pratiksha Paudel and Neerajan Koirala.

The commission has also demanded an additional amount of Rs 232 million be recovered from them as per the exchange rate of US dollar.

Likewise, similar claims have been made against employees of Newmera Eden BHD Malaysia, Kabindra Raj Malla, director of Namaste Global Common PTE Singapore, among others.

The procurement of the Mobile Data Management System was done with malicious intention, the CIAA stated in the charge sheet. According to the commission, the procurement work was done without estimating the cost and accepting the bid by showing unnaturally high operational costs. Spokesperson for the commission Narahari Ghimire said the case was filed on Thursday demanding action against the accused. -- RSS