The special probe committee of the House of Representatives concluded that the CCTV footage of the day when the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had invited two outsiders to tweak tax rates a day before he presented the budget in Parliament on May 29 was deleted in a premeditated manner.

The plan to grill Sharma has also been postponed after the probe committee could not find the CCTV footage.

According to an official of the committee, the Finance Ministry sent the CCTV footage twice but could not find the video where the then Finance Minister Sharma invited two unauthorized persons to tweak the tax rates.

The Finance Ministry handed over the hard drive of the CCTV footage on Friday. However, the footage came out to be of June not of May. Therefore, the committee sent a letter, urging the Ministry to send the footage of May.

Though the Ministry sent the whole system on Monday, the committee could not find the actual footage it had been looking for, a source at the committee said.

“Now, the committee has decided to start the process to retrieve the footage,” the source said.

The committee has planned to take the statement of the then Minister Sharma after completing the process of CCTV footage, the source said.

The committee has already taken the statements of the finance secretary and revenue secretary. Both of them strongly denied the allegations leveled against them.

The probe committee was formed on June 6, the day when then Finance Minister Sharma resigned from his post.

Annapurna Post, the sister publication of the Annapurna post, had first reported that the then Minister Sharma had invited a pair of outsiders into his chamber to tweak the tax rates.