Kathmandu, June 30 (H.S.): The special court of Nepal ordered the release of Nepali Congress MP and former Minister of Information and Communications Mohan Basnet on bail of 2.5 million rupees in the high-profile telecom corruption case exceeding 321 billion rupees. The Anti-Corruption Bureau filed the case in court on May 15 regarding this scam involving the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).

Basnet and 15 others have been named as accused. The bench, comprising Justice Tej Narayan Singh Rai, Justice Ram Bahadur Thapa, and Justice Bidur Koirala, recorded Basnet’s statement earlier today, after which the order for his release was issued. The Anti-Corruption Bureau has alleged that there was massive embezzlement during the procurement of the Teramox system for the Nepal Telecommunications Authority.

Other accused include former NTA chairman Digambar Jha, Dhanraj Gyawali, Tika Prasad Upreti, Surendra Lal Hada, Deepesh Acharya, Sandip Adhikari, Achyutanand Mishra, Vijay Kumar Raya, Purushottam Prasad Khanal, Revati Ram Panth, Suresh Basnet, Hiranya Prasad Basakoti, Tej Prasad Kharel, Dilip Kumar Gurung, and two private companies.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar