KATHMANDU  - Nepal’s highest court on Tuesday jailed a serving government minister for corruption in a first for a nation fighting an ingrained culture of graft. The Supreme Court handed information and communications minister, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, an 18-month sentence and an 8.4 million-rupee fine after he failed to account for a vast portfolio of property accrued while in office. Gupta, 52, has held a number of ministerial posts and was appointed to the information ministry after his party struck a deal with the Maoists to form a coalition govt in August last year. “This bench has reached the conclusion that the defendant’s source of income and the property he earned during the given period doesn’t match,” Sushila Karki told reporters.