CIAA Chief, Commissioner Retired

Chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Surya Nath Upadhyay, and commissioner Basudev Lamichhane will retire on Thursday.

"They will retire tomorrow as they have completed their six-year tenures as per the Constitution of 1990," said a commissioner of the anti-graft body. Upadhyay is on leave for a few weeks due to "ill health". Under the leadership of Upadhyay, the CIAA had filed corruption cases against powerful leaders, former ministers, bureaucrats and former chiefs of police, leading to their arrests. Upadhyay landed into controversy when he summoned the current Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who had challenged the King's direct rule and sought the restoration of democracy, on the charge of amassing property disproportionate of his income. Koirala challenged the CIAA summons and did not appear at the CIAA. The CIAA issued a clean chit to Koirala following the restoration of democracy.