The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has pasted a seven-day customary notice of summons outside the house of suspended Inland Revenue Department Chief Chudamani Sharma on Wednesday.

A team of CIAA in the presence of ward secretary pasted the notice outside the house of Sharma at Chandeshwori Marga in Budhanilkantha Municipality this afternoon.

According to a high-level source at the CIAA, the anti-graft constitutional body pasted the notice after he did not show up at the office of CIAA despite repeated summons.

“We had summoned him (Sharma) to investigate and interrogate into the complaints filed against him for earning money in an illegal way,” the source said.

A corruption case against Sharma is pending at the Special Court. This time the investigation is zeroed in on the complaints filed against him for earning money in an illegal way.

The source said that the CIAA has suspected that the house he is residing currently was not constructed with the money he earned by selling the books of Public Service Commission as claimed by him.

“His claim and our investigation have a difference of Rs 150 million,” the source said, adding, “More fact will be revealed during the interrogation.”

The CIAA on June 2 had arrested Sharma on the charge of misappropriating revenue and settling taxes in a questionable way. 

Sharma was arrested from his Lazimpat office in the afternoon based on complaints that he, as a member of the Tax Settlement Commission (TSC), was involved in misappropriating billions of rupees that was exempted by TSC. 

Later, Sharma’s wife Kalpana Upreti Sharma on July 11 had filed a habeas corpus writ at the Supreme Court (SC) demanding the release of her husband.

Responding to the writ, the SC on August 10 ordered the CIAA to release Sharma on general date.

The TSC, formed in February 2015, had run into controversy after a report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) in April called into question the Rs 21 billion tax exemption granted to various enterprises.

Sharma, the first serving top official to be arrested from the revenue administration, is said to have a controversial past.

As Chief District Officer of Sunsari, Sharma had given the clean chit to Shiva Prasad Ghimire, owner of Sugam Gas Company which was charged with tampering with cooking gas cylinders.