KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 31

The Special Court today granted bail to Uma Kumari Dhakalni, the wife of one of the two main accused in the Lalita Niwas land grab case.

According to Spokesperson of the Special Court Pushpa Raj Panday, the bench of Special Court Chairperson Prem Raj Karki, and judges Abdul Aziz Musalman and Nityanand Pandey sought a bail of Rs 200,000 from Dhakalni.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed cases against individuals involved in Lalita Niwas land grab case in February, including Uma’s husband Shobhakanta Dhakal.

Shobha Kanta Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi, who have been accused of acting as land mafia, have been charged with embezzling Rs 39.27 crore and Rs 52.51 crore respectively.

The CIAA had on February 6 filed corruption cases against 175 individuals, including former deputy prime minister and Nepali Congress Vice-president Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, former ministers Dambar Shrestha and Chandra Dev Joshi for their role in the Lalita Niwas land grab case.

The anti-graft body also named Rukma Shumsher JB Rana and his family members as defendants in the case.

The CIAA accused Gachhadar and Shrestha of embezzling Rs 9.65 crore each. It accused Joshi of embezzling 7.08 crore.

The Sharada Prasad Trital-led probe committee had submitted its report saying the government had forfeited only 14 ana land of Subarna Shumsher and had paid compensation to Subarna Shumsher for acquiring 284 ropani land. The committee said that even those land plots, which the government had duly acquired by paying compensation was fraudulently transferred to individuals’ names. As per the Trital committee’s recommendations, the government has halted the sale and purchase of Lalita Niwas area land plots.

Family members of late Subarna Shamsher Rana claimed that the Panchayat government had confiscated 299 ropani land in Baluwatar that belonged to them.

The post democratic-era government returned only those land plots that were forfeited by the government in 1960.