Kathmandu, Oct 17: A special court in Nepal has remanded a former home minister and two former government secretaries to 20 days in judicial custody to enable an anti-corruption body to continue a probe, court sources said today. "The special court has ordered former home minister Govinda Raj Joshi and ex-secretaries Padma Prasad Pokhrel and Chakra Bandhu Aryal to be put in custody for 20 days to enable the probe body to go ahead with its investigation into the corruption charges levelled against them," the court source said. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is investigating Joshi, who is joint Secretary General of the opposition Nepali Congress (NC) Party, Pokhrel, a former Home Secretary and Aryal, a former Defence Secretary on charges of illegally amassing money beyond their capabilities. The CIAA had pleaded that it needed a month's custodial detention of the accused to complete its investigations, but the court said the 20 days detention would begin from Monday when the three men were arrested.
Earlier this year the CIAA decided on the basis of a report into property ownership to take action against 22 politicians, including Joshi, and 12 serving or former government officials.
Bureau Report