KATHMANDU: The Special Court has sentenced suspended Bagmati Municipality mayor Bharat Kumar Thapa to 8 years in prison and ordered him to repay Rs 100.9 million in a high-profile corruption case.
Thapa, known locally for creating the “Bharat Lake,” was found guilty of illegally amassing Rs 34.5 million beyond his legitimate income and misusing municipal resources in a fishpond construction project without federal approval.
The court, comprising judges Tek Narayan Kunwar, Murari Babu Shrestha, and Vidur Koirala, also found the municipality’s Chief Administrative Officer Bimal Kumar Pokharel and engineer Sagar Paudel guilty, ordering all three to jointly reimburse over Rs 302.9 million in losses caused to the state. Each must also pay Rs 4,039,131.97 to the Victim Relief Fund.
The case stemmed from the unauthorized extraction of stone, gravel, and sand from federally protected forest land under the Sagar Nath Forest Development Project to construct the lake. The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the charges in June 2024 against six officials, though three—including Deputy Mayor Lilakumari Moktan—were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Thapa, elected from the Maoist party, had already been convicted in 2024 in a related illegal asset case and fined an additional Rs 34.5 million, with orders to confiscate equivalent property.
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