Kathmandu : Bikram Pandey, a senior leader of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and former minister, was arrested on Friday on charges of illegally accessing and manipulating government procurement data, police said.
A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police detained Pandey, according to CIB spokesperson Shiv Kumar Shrestha.
Authorities allege that Pandey gained unauthorized entry into the Public Procurement Monitoring Office’s system and altered details related to multiple tenders.
Police also arrested Tank Kumar Shrestha, operator of Bhishan Construction, in connection with the same case. Investigators say the suspects tampered with financial proposal documents before the official opening of bids.
The case was initially registered at the Cyber Bureau in Bhotahiti under the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 (2006), based on a formal complaint.
Following the arrests, the investigation has been expanded under the Organized Crime Prevention Act, 2070 (2013), police said. So far, nine individuals have been taken into custody as part of the ongoing probe.
