AC MPs point finger at SC judge

Two Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members have alleged that a supreme court judge who is being scrutinised by the committee in connection with the Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills bank loan default case has threatened them.

It may be recalled that the PAC is threatening to impeach the judges who had given a ruling in favour of the business firm. “He telephoned and threatened me,” PAC member Leelamani Pokhrel told this daily today. He added that Justice Badri Kumar Basnet had called him on his cell phone and warned him not to go ahead with the impeachment process.

“I was surprised that a Supreme Court judge called me on an issue related with him and warned me not to go ahead,” Pokhrel added.

“Immediately after he called me I reported the matter to PAC chairman Chitra Bahadur KC.” Another MP who does not want to be named also said Basnet called him and urged him not to go ahead with the impeachment process. “I told him that it was not a proper way to influence an MP,” he said.

“Justice Basnet told me that this was not a serious issue and they should settle it in a simple manner,” Pokhrel said, adding The PAC is preparing to report to the full House against the judges who had given the verdict on the case. Basnet is among the judges who had lifted the firm from a blacklist of the Bankers’ Club.