Court releases Sudhir Basnet on bail

KATHMANDU, FEB 04 -

District Court, Kathmandu on Sunday released businessman Sudhir Basnet on bail. Basnet was in police custody on charge of financial fraud.

A single bench of justice Bhoj Raj Adhikari released him by securing a bail amount of Rs 600,000, of which Rs 400,000 was for the case related to alleged fraud of Rs 80 million, while Rs 200,000 was for another charge related to Rs 40-million fraud.

The police had arrested Basnet on complaints that he failed pay interest of loans taken from banks, repay depositors of Oriental Cooperative, and ensure availability of apartment in projects he has promoted for the people who had placed bookings.

Basnet’s woes began with recession in realty sector, hitting his entire business. He was facing mounting pressure from the people who had booked apartment in his housing projects after he failed to deliver them on time.

Several of the cheques he issued had also bounced. After his failure to clear his liabilities, the government lawyer had filed a case against him.Basnet has promoted about two dozen housing and apartment projects, but most of them are incomplete. Given the banks not extending further loans, he failed to complete the projects, while those placing bookings were enraged.

Also, Oriental Cooperative, which he has promoted, has failed to repay its depositors after cash flow from his realty projects stooped.

He has also taken loans from the cooperative to fund his projects. Currently, deposits worth Rs 3.89 billion of over 7,000 depositors with the cooperative are at risk.

His airline company, Agni Air, has also been grounded as he has liabilities to its employees and Cvil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

He has been claiming that he is capable of clearing all his liabilities as he has more assets than liabilities.

He has been making remarks that keeping him behind bar would not support the cause of clearing his liabilities.

Source: The Kathmandu Post