Former Executive Director of National Information Technology Center and suspended Managing Director of Nepal Telecom Sunil Paudel has been sentenced to nine years in jail along with a fine of Rs 465 million 316 thousand in the national payment gateway (NPG) corruption case.
On April 19, a bench of Special Court chairman Tek Narayan Kunwar and member Murari Babu Shrestha had convicted Paudel in the corruption case.
The sentence and the fine were decided on Tuesday. According to which, Paudel was sentenced to nine years in jail along with a restitution of Rs 232 million 658 thousand and an equal amount in fine, the court said.
Paudel has also been implicated in other corruption cases of the information technology field of Nepal.
However, the government's secretary Madhu Marasini, who was also implicated in the corruption case, has been acquitted by the court.
A case had been filed against Marasini on the charge of allocating a budget for the NPG procurement by breaching the existing rules when he was the head of the Budget and Program Division of the Finance Ministry.
On October 2, 2023, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed graft cases against nine individuals including siting secretary Marasini in the NPG procurement case.
The others getting a clean chit from the Special Court include the then Secretary of Ministry of Science and Technology, and Chairman of National Information Technology Centre Sanjay Sharma, the then Executive Director of National Information Technology Center Pranita Upadhyay and the then Director of Center Saphal Shrestha.
The NPG which was procured for Rs 232.7 million six years ago has not come into operation yet.
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