Kathmandu: The Special Court has convicted four individuals in a corruption case related to the procurement of two wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft by Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).
The convicted include Shankar Prasad Adhikari, the former NAC Chairman and Tourism Secretary, Sugat Ratna Kansakar, the former NAC Managing Director, and two former NAC Board members, Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and Shishir Kumar Dhungana. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 1.5 to 2.6 years and fined Rs 122.4 million.
Former Tourism Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi was acquitted, and his suspension from the Karnali Provincial Assembly was lifted. The case, initiated by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in 2024, accused the defendants of causing a loss of Rs 1.47 billion to the state during the aircraft procurement process.
Several foreign nationals involved in the deal, including Deepak Sharma, Christian Neulen, and Oleg Kalistru, were also convicted and sentenced to 1.6 years in prison.
The procurement of the aircraft, which began in 2016, became controversial due to its lack of transparency. The deal led to the creation of a company called Hi Fly X in Ireland, designed to facilitate the sale.
The Public Accounts Committee had previously found that NAC incurred a loss of Rs 4.36 billion from the deal. The Special Court has ruled that the convicted individuals will be responsible for recovering the damages.