Probe Committee gives ‘clean chit’ to Ex-Finance Minister Janardan Sharma

Kathmandu: Probe committee submits report on investigation of charges against Ex-Finance Minister Janardan Sharma. Parliamentary Special Investigation Committee submits its report to the Speaker.

Presenting the report of investigation to the House of Representatives (HoR) on Friday, Chairman of the committee, Laxman Lal Karna maintained that the committee found no evidence against outgoing Finance Minister Sharma during its 75 hours of investigation.

Janardan Sharma was under fire after reports of that he changed tax rates in the budget plan for the next fiscal year under some industrialists’ pressure. It was reported that the industrialists’ representatives entered the ministry office on the eve of the budget announcement to tamper with the document, there was a call to investigate the CCTV footage. But, the ministry had said the footage was automatically deleted.

Upon the probe committee’s request, Nepal Police recovered some clips, but the committee has concluded they were so unclear that it could not generate any evidence. The House of Representatives formed the committee to look into the charges against Minister Sharma on July 6 which began working on July 12. Sharma had resigned minutes after the probe team was formed. The committee had quizzed Janardan Sharma over the charges, but he pleaded innocent.