Supreme Court of Nepal is set to review the Special Court's ruling in the Sikta Irrigation Project that acquitted the contractor by attributing corruption to soil conditions.
The apex court has smelled a rat on the evaluation of the evidence submitted.
A joint bench of Justices Til Prasad Shrestha and Sunil Kumar Pokharel has also summoned former Minister Bikram Pandey, the accused in the graft-case.
The apex court has identified some loopholes in the judgment of the Special Court that would establish liability for the accused.
The irrigation project, which was designed in line with the feasibility study report, had explicitly mentioned loose soil conditions in the area.
The court order mandates that the construction should have been carried out with measures to prevent water leakage. However, the investigation revealed that these measures were not adequately considered during the construction process.
Further, the agreement was done with the contractor neglecting provisions for soil testing and cracks were visible on the construction walls during the inspection of the project, reads the order.
"The project construction does not confirm to the feasibility study report and no measures were adopted to prevent water leakage even though the report explicitly mentioned loose soil conditions," reads the order, "No provisions for soil testing were found to have been placed in the contract agreement and cracks were found during the inspection carried out immediately after the completion of the construction."
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), had filed a case in the apex court after the Special Court gave a clean chit in the Sikta Irrigation corruption located in Banke.
The Special Court acquitted 21 individuals including former Minister and Senior Vice Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Bikram Pandey.
He is the operator of Kalika Construction JV, the company that was awarded the construction contract.
The anti-graft body had filed a graft case against Pandey seeking a fine of 2 billion 137 million 600 thousand rupees. The Special Court had issued the verdict in favor the defendant arguing that the construction collapsed due to the loose soil.
The bench led by chairman of the Special Court Shreekanta Paudel and members Ramesh Kumar Pokharel and Yamuna Bhattarai on June 19, 2022 had issued the decision in favor of the accused.
The construction project, which spanned over a decade, had collapsed shortly after the initial release of water.
The graft case had been filed in the Nepali month Mansir in 2075 BS.
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