Kathmandu, July 8: The Special Court has granted permission to keep former finance minister Bishnu Poudel in custody for an additional five days for investigation into a money laundering case.
The Special Court on Wednesday issued an order for the fourth extension of his detention period following a request from the Department of Money Laundering Investigation.
A joint bench of judges Narayan Prasad Poudel and Bidur Koirala granted permission to keep Poudel in custody for another five days to facilitate the investigation.
Poudel is currently being held in judicial custody and is under investigation on allegations related to money laundering.
Poudel was arrested on Ashadh 8 on allegations linking him to financial dealings and transactions with businessman Deepak Bhatt, who is currently in custody for trial in a money laundering case.
The main focus of the investigation is the purchase and sale of a 20 percent stake in Shriram Tobacco Industry Pvt. Ltd. The shares were purchased by Himalayan Assets Management Pvt. Ltd., which was under the sole control of Deepak Bhatt.
According to the investigating authorities, although the book value of the shares was around Rs. 300 million, the transaction appears to have been carried out at only Rs. 37.5 million.
The government side has termed the transaction suspicious, claiming that the transfer of shares at a price far below their actual value was an attempt to conceal the source of a large amount of money.
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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