Nepal Court Orders China Loan Records in Pokhara Airport Corruption Case

A Nepalese court has directed government agencies to produce records of a Chinese loan and contractor payments in a corruption case concerning Pokhara International Airport, according to two Nepalese newsrooms reporting on Friday, November 6.

The Special Court ordered the Public Debt Management Office to supply details of the loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, including the repayment process and instalment records, Kantipur and Onlinekhabar reported. Onlinekhabar also reported that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal was instructed to provide bills and receipts submitted by construction contractor China CAMC Engineering, amounts already paid and outstanding balances.

The reported order came from a bench led by Special Court chair Basudev Acharya, with members Dilliratna Shrestha and Umesh Koirala. The signed order and any compliance deadline were not independently available in the material reviewed for this report.

The court's request for documents is a procedural step, not a ruling that the loan or payments were unlawful. It comes amid a prosecution filed in May against 14 defendants, including former finance minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, over tax and customs exemptions granted during construction of the airport. Nepal's anti-corruption commission has alleged that an implementation agreement improperly departed from the original contract and sought recovery of about 3.62 billion Nepalese rupees. Those are allegations before the court, not findings of guilt.

The Kathmandu Post reported in May that prosecutors said the contractor received tax-related benefits contrary to the original agreement. The defense positions of the named parties on the new document order were not established in the sources reviewed. The next verifiable development will be production of the underlying loan ledger, contractor invoices and court filings, which could clarify the sums actually borrowed, repaid, invoiced and outstanding.