The Special Court released Hikmat Singh Ayer, director of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) accused of being involved in misusing state funds, after he posted Rs 10 million in bail as set by the court on Tuesday.

A bench of justices Mohan Raman Bhattarai, Bhupendra Prasad Rai and Narendra Kumar Shiwakoti had fixed the bail of Rs 10 million after conducting a preliminary hearing over the director’s involvement in the multi-million rupee NTB scam. “He has been released after posting bail amount as set by the court,” said the court’s Registrar Bhadrakali Pokharel.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in April first week dragged 52 individuals, including two sitting government secretaries, suspended NTB chief Subas Nirola and Ayer among others on charge of embezzling Rs790 million while at the board.

Ayer is the first accused to face preliminary hearing. “The rest of the accused are yet to go through the preliminary hearing,” said Pokharel.

After almost a year-long probe into the irregularities at the NTB, the anti-graftbody had filed a corruption case against them.

The case, which was considered as one of the high-profile corruption cases, had dragged Forest Secretary Sharad Chandra Poudel and Law Commission Secretary Ranjan Krishna Aryal, including Joint-secretary Dilli Prasad Shiwakoti who had worked at the Board under various capacities.

 The commission has accused Nirola of embezzling Rs330 million in procurements. Poudel was on the NTB board while he served the Department of Immigration as its director general, and Aryal was an invitee member on the board in the capacity of the joint-secretary at the Tourism Ministry. Shiwakoti is a joint-secretary at the Finance Ministry.

The board consists of 11 members—five representing the government, five from the private sector and the chairman. “Almost all the members who served alongside Nirola have been charge-sheeted,” said an official at the Special Court, who saw the charge sheet on Thursday evening.

Corruption at the Board came to light after the amended financial bylaws of NTB granted sweeping powers to its chief, Nirola, who was already accused of misappropriating funds while procuring goods.

The amendments allowed the NTB to award contracts without competitive bidding. Also, the CEO was thus authorised to spend up to Rs10 million at a time for tourism promotion activities inside the country.

Based on complaints, the government had formed a probe panel headed by Joint-secretary Purna Chandra Bhattarai. The committee mandated to look into the irregularities and consequences of the revision in NTB chief’s powers had also found the involvement of then Tourism Secretary Sushil Ghimire in amending the bylaws in violation of the Public Procurement Act.

The report said the NTB was marred by policy and financial irregularities. It had exposed that the NTB’s 192nd board meeting chaired by then-Secretary Ghimire had passed a Rs74 million budget while its actual requirement was only Rs12.1 million. The partial budget agreed to by the meeting had been passed illegally without a quorum.