Besides Shrestha, who has been named the prime accused, CIAA has indicted Lal Bahadur Shiva, Dhan Raj Shah, Ajay Kumar Patel, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Jayaraj Panta, Sandeep Nath Upreti, Akhilesh Chandra Das, Hareram Wagle, Durga Bahadur Gandhari, Dilip Raj Joshi, Prabin Ghimire, Manoj Chipalu and  Satis Kumar Chaudhary.

The chargesheet mentions that the accused officials had produced fake bills and records for programmes that never took place to obtain fund from the government and donor agencies.

“They acted against the law and caused a huge loss to the government, thereby creating an obstacle in the achievement of national goal aimed at eliminating poverty,” the CIAA said in a statement.

Before filing the case, the anti-graft body had suspended Shrestha from his position of executive director to prevent him from influencing the investigation process.

PAF was established in 2004 at the joint initiatives of World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development and Nepal Government with the aim of improving the status of people living under extreme poverty. According to PAF officials, over $200 million has been released under various programmes so far.