The probe committee formed to investigate alleged entry of two unauthorized persons in the Finance Ministry on May 28, a day before the budget was presented in the Parliament, has begun studying the report of the hard disk of CCTV.

The committee started the study by opening the seal of the hard disk obtained from the forensic lab of the Nepal Police on Tuesday.

The investigation committee sent the hard disk to the forensic lab of the Nepal Police after it could not get the video of the day when former Finance Minister Janardan Sharma allegedly allowed two outsiders to enter the ministry to tweak tax rates on the eve of the budget presentation.

The committee received the hard disk, sent to the forensic lab of the Nepal Police on July 20, on Monday.

“Only the required process has been completed, there is nothing in the report,” a member of the committee said. Though there is a video of the CCTV of the Finance Ministry in the report sent by the forensic lab of the Nepal Police, the time has not been revealed, the member said.

The Annapurna Post, sister publication of The Annapurna Express, in its June 13 edition published a story claiming that Sharma had allowed two unauthorized persons in the ministry to make last-moment changes in the tax rates.

According to a provision, the finance minister cannot even keep his advisor while changing the tax rates.

But, the former finance minister directed the officials of the Finance Ministry to follow suggestions of two outsiders—a retired senior non-gazetted officer and a chartered accountant—on the night of May 28 to change tax rates to favour some businessmen.

After The Annapurna Post made the news public, lawmakers in the Parliament demanded the resignation of Sharma. They also demanded that they be allowed to see the CCTV footage immediately. But the finance minister had been turning a blind eye to the demand.

Saying that it was a matter of public concern, Secretary Jaya Prasad Paudel on behalf of the Consumers Rights Conservation Forum on June 28 had demanded information from the Ministry.

Paudel had demanded that the Ministry provide a copy of the budget which was replaced by the finance ministry brought by the erstwhile government through the ordinance and the footage of the night that the two unauthorized persons were allowed to the ministry to change tax rates.

In response, the Finance Ministry said that the CCTV footage has been deleted.

“The CCTV footage got deleted as the storage could keep records of only 13 days,” read a letter signed by non-gazetted officer Dhan Kumar Rai.

The committee had sought CCTV footage of south and east gates of singhadurbar of May 28 and 29 with the Home Ministry to see whether any unauthorized persons entered the building.

On June 12, the panel had demanded to extend the deadline after it could not gather evidence within the given 10 days.

As per the request, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota tabled a proposal in the Parliament meeting on Thursday to extend the deadline by seven days. The Parliament endorsed the proposal unanimously.

The committee had started the work on June 12.