Pardafas Reporter
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has said that the investigation into the Baluwatar based Lalita Niwas Land Scam has reached the final stage. However, despite police claims they have arrested only three accused during this period. Among the arrested are Shobha Kant Dhakal, private legal aid-provider Ram Kumar Subedi and his wife Madhavi.
The main accused in the case have however been on the run after the CIB started issuing an arrest warrant. According to CIB sources, the police are searching for them. If they could not be arrested, the CIB is preparing to file a separate charge of abscond against the accused. The CIB sources said the charges will be filed against over 300 people involved in the scam.
The Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is also investigating the case and has filed a corruption case against 175 individuals on 6 February 2020. The CIB has prepared a list of those investigated by the CIAA and other additional.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructures Vijay Kumar Gachhadar, who also became vice-president of Nepali Congress, is the most 'high profile' among the cases filed by the authorities. Deep Basnyat, the then physical infrastructure secretary who became the chief commissioner of the CIAA, is another 'high profile'.
Separate cases have been filed at the Supreme Court by advocates against former Prime Ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai under whose reign the Lalita Niwas, the government property was handed over to private ownership.
A case has also been filed against the then Minister for Land Reforms and Management Chandra Dev Joshi and Dambar Shrestha. Former secretary Chhabiraj Pant, who has been made the defendant, is also a person who has also already become a minister. The then secretary Dinesh Hari Adhikari has also been made a defendant in the case.
A case was registered against 60 persons including Joint Secretaries Mukundra Prasad Acharya, Rudra Kumar Shrestha, Jit Bahadur Thapa, Ashok Nath Upreti and Tejraj Pandey, three Chief Land Revenue Officers, five Land Revenue Officers and eight Branch Officers and Deputy Subba, Kharidar and Amins.
Fifty people, including landowners and tenants, have also been charged by the CIAA. In addition, 65 encroachers have been made defendants for land confiscation. Shobha Kant Dhakal, Ram Kumar Subedi and director of Bhatbhateni Super Market Min Bahadur Gurung, who played a key role in bringing government land in the name of individuals, have also been named as the main defendants.
According to the indictment, the three were directly involved in transferring the government land in their names or in the names of their relatives’ or in the name of their companies.
Most of these high-profile individuals are now out of contact and are being sought by the police. Bureau DIG Dheeraj Pratap Singh informed that the investigation has reached the final stage. "We are completing the investigation and will submit a report soon," he said.
The deadline for the CIB to file a case in this case is January 11. The term of the case of forgery of government land is two years. The CIB, which was investigating the complaint filed by Samarjung Company, had submitted the report to the Ministry of Home Affairs on January 11, last year.
Earlier, the previous government had decided not to prosecute fraud cases despite allegations of fraud and embezzlement. At that time, the CIAA had investigated the graft case as per the decision of the District Government Attorney’s Office.
An investigation committee led by former secretary Sharda Prasad Trital had recommended action against those involved in the land grabbing. The CIB has conducted an investigation on the basis of the same report.
The CIAA had registered cases against three ministers, three former secretaries, five joint secretaries and six deputy secretaries, including the former deputy prime minister, with more than Rs 10.143 billion.
The commission had filed a case in a special court against the usurper of 136 ropanis of government land at Lalita Niwas in Baluwatar, Kathmandu.
Lalita Niwas is the compound area of 299 ropanis of land owned by the then Prime Minister Bhims Shamsher JBR who had also build a durbar there and handed over to his children. Later, after the restoration of democracy King Mahendra confiscated the Lalita residence of Bhimshamsher's grandson Suvarnashamsher (Nepali Congress leader) in 2017 BS.
The government brought the same land under its control by publishing a notice in the Gazette on 17 December 2021. Apart from Lalita's residence, the government had also acquired land and palaces in five other places in the Gazette.
However, misinterpreting the confiscation on the basis of political revenge, the descendants of Suvarna Shamsher had sold the land by setting up forged documents. The interim government led by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, formed after the Jana Andolan of 2046 BS, had decided to investigate and return the confiscated property of a person during the Panchayat period due to his involvement in the democratic movement.
Although the committee formed under the coordination of Girija Prasad Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba did not make any recommendation for that, the Dilli Bazaar Land Revenue Office made an illegal decision on 2049 BS and transferred the land of Samarjung Company to Rukma Shamsher Rana.
File no. 1024 of Dilli Bazar Land Revenue Office reveals that the land was transferred to Suniti Rana, Shailja Rana and Rukma Shamsher Rana, the descendants of Subarna Shamsher. After that Shovakanta Dhakal, Ram Kumar Subedi and Min Bahadur Gurung had foul play by forming various fake tenants and fake landlords to bring the land under Guthi and other private owners.
