Gupta speaks to the media after the Supreme Court announced his one and a half year jail term and Rs8.4mn ($106,000) fine over the corruption charge in Kathmandu yesterday

Nepal’s highest court yesterday jailed a serving government minister for corruption in a first for a nation fighting an ingrained culture of graft.
The Supreme Court handed information and communications minister, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, an 18-month sentence and an Rs8.4mn fine after he failed to account for a vast portfolio of property accrued while in office.
Gupta, 52, has held a number of ministerial posts and was appointed to the information ministry after his party struck a deal with the Maoists to form a coalition government in August last year.
“This bench has reached the conclusion that the defendant’s source of income and the property he earned during the given period doesn’t match,” Sushila Karki, one of two presiding judges, told reporters.
“He failed to verify the source of income for Rs8.4mn. Therefore, it has been proved that Gupta has committed a crime as per the Corruption Prevention Act,” she said, reading from the verdict.
Gupta, who surrendered before the court, has been sent to Dillibazaar jail. Following his conviction, Gupta’s ministerial berth and membership of Parliament have automatically been terminated.
Chiranjibi Wagle, a former government minister, was jailed for corruption last year but Gupta is the first serving cabinet minister to be handed prison time in a graft case.
Gupta started his political career with Nepali Congress (NC) and was the prime minister’s press adviser in 1991 after the restoration of democracy in the impoverished Himalayan nation. 
He was an information and communications minister in the mid-1990s but left the NC to form the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum Nepal, a regional party representing ethnic Madhesis in the southern plains.
He has repeatedly denied charges of illegally amassing property and said he has been singled out for being a Madhesi.
The Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against Gupta at a Special Court in March 2003, accusing him of accumulating property by abusing powers.
However, the Special Court had acquitted Gupta in June 2007, citing insufficient evidence to prove him guilty of corruption. As per rules, Gupta’s sentence and penalty will be reduced by 20% as he voluntarily surrendered immediately. AFP