Kathmandu, January 14
Nepali Congress President and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has claimed that he is not involved in suspected regularities in the purchase of two wide body aircraft for the national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation.
Recent media reports have claimed Deuba should also be responsible for the irregularities as some instalments to Airbus were paid when he was taking the charge of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation during his premiership before the parliamentary elections in 2017.
However, Deuba says the decision was made during the premiership of his predecessor Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the purchase was made after KP Sharma Oli took over.
He claimed the Dahal government had decided to present the government as a guarantor of the deal.
“When I was just elected the prime minister, I had to look after 19 ministries. Therefore, I do not know what happened where,” Deuba told journalists in Dhangadhi on Monday morning, “But, I have not made any decision about the issue at the ministerial level.”
Arguing that it would be injustice to connect his name to the scam, Deuba said, “I have not made any decision. Why do you blame me?”
