Nepal minister jailed for corruption

NEPAL’S Supreme Court Tuesday convicted Minister of Information Jaya Prakash Gupta on charges of corruption, the first such case involving a sitting government minister.

Gupta was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of 8.4 million rupees (about US$105,000) in a case that goes back nearly a decade.

A Special Court charged Gupta with illegally amassing wealth and property worth 20.8 million rupees in March 2003. He was subsequently acquitted in 2007.

The Supreme Court overturned the previous decision and recommended the investigation of three former judges who presided over Gupta’s first trial.

Gupta made headlines recently for his outspoken support of ethnic Madhise communities in the southern Terai region.

He told reporters Tuesday that his conviction could be politically motivated.

“This was a plot against my struggle for the Madhise people.”

Prosecutors revealed during the trial that authorities had found bank accounts in his and his wife’s name containing more than 5 million rupees.

Report from ucanews.com