Nagarjun Municipality Mayor Basnet suspended; Deputy Mayor Sushila Adhikari appointed as acting mayor

KATHMANDU: Mohan Basnet, who was elected twice as the mayor of Nagarjuna Municipality, has been suspended automatically from the post of mayor after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption and money laundering case against him.

With the suspension of Mayor Basnet, the leadership of the municipality has gone to the CPN-UML.

Sushila Adhikari is the Deputy Mayor of the municipality.

After the suspension of the mayor, Deputy Mayor Adhikari has been appointed as the acting mayor, municipality spokesperson Mahesh Rimal said.

Adhikari was also elected as the deputy mayor for the second time.

The charge sheet mentioned that Basnet was involved in illicit dealing to provide land worth Rs 477 million at low price- Rs 232 million- to Padma Colony.

Similarly, Rs 21.5 million was stashed in the bank accounts of Mayor Basnet and his spouse Urmila Basnet.

Proprietor of Padma Colony, Raju Prasad Kandel, provided the hush money for the land worth Rs 68 million, while Rs 2.4 million for a wedding party.

In the lawsuit, the anti-corruption body demanded a recovery of Rs 92 million from Basnet, his spouse, and proprietor, Kandel.