The Supreme Court (SC) has convicted former minister Govinda Raj Joshi of corruption, sentencing him to nine months in prison and fining him Rs 6.9 million.
The case, which began in the Special Court in 2004, took over two decades to reach a final verdict.
A division bench of Justices Binod Sharma and Bal Krishna Dhakal announced the decision after hearings that spanned more than a decade. The verdict was delivered on Sunday, marking the 48th hearing in the case.
Joshi, a former Home Minister, was initially convicted of corruption by the Special Court on July 25, 2012. At that time, he was fined Rs 21.6 million and sentenced to one and a half years in prison.
Then a prominent Nepali Congress leader, Joshi appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the subordinate court’s ruling.
The Supreme Court upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence to a Rs 6.9 million fine and nine months in prison.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against Joshi at the Special Court on February 11, 2004, accusing him of amassing Rs 30.93 million in assets between 1991 and 2001 while holding various ministerial positions in Nepali Congress governments.
However, in 2006, the court acquitted Joshi, citing the anti-graft watchdog’s failure to meet the statute of limitations for filing the case.
The commission challenged the Special Court’s decision at the Supreme Court, arguing that the acquittal was flawed, leading to the case being reopened following directives from the apex court.
Currently, the Supreme Court is prioritizing long-pending corruption cases.
By FCCT Editorial Team
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