Nagarjun Mayor Basnet sentenced to 11 years in prison, fined millions

Kathmandu – Mohan Bahadur Basnet, the mayor of Nagarjun Municipality, has been sentenced for corruption and money laundering offenses.

On Monday, the Special Court determined the punishment for Basnet, who was found guilty on June 21. The bench, led by Judges Tek Narayan Kunwar and Ram Bahadur Thapa, assigned separate penalties for the corruption and money laundering charges.

Mayor Basnet was found guilty of accepting a bribe of 92.24 million Nepali rupees from Raju Prasad Kandel, the director of Padma Colony Pvt. Ltd. and Padma Merchant Company Pvt. Ltd. The court has decided that both the giver and receiver of the bribe should be penalized.

Monday’s sentencing included a fine of 2.31 million rupees for Basnet, and confiscation of property equal to the embezzled amount from all four defendants involved. Basnet and Kandel received a sentence of eight years in prison each.

Additionally, he received an extra three-month sentence for committing corruption while holding a public office as the municipality’s chief.

Regarding the money laundering charge, it was found that Basnet had laundered assets worth 131.27 million rupees. For this, he received a separate three-year prison term. Only Basnet was found guilty of the money laundering charge.

The court also imposed a fine double the embezzled amount, totaling 262.5 million rupees, and ordered the confiscation of related assets. Furthermore, due to the misuse of public service privileges for money laundering, an additional 10% penalty was applied, resulting in an extra three months and 18 days of imprisonment and a fine of 26.25 million rupees.

Moreover, in accordance with the Crime Victims Protection Act of 2018, Basnet is required to pay 10.5 million rupees. Padma Colony Pvt. Ltd., Padma Merchant Company Pvt. Ltd., and their chairman, Raju Prasad Kandel, must deposit a compensation fee of 922,000 rupees into the victim relief fund.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed a case on December 29 against Mayor Basnet, his wife Urmila Basnet, and Kandel.