KATHMANDU, JULY 13

The Supreme Court today ordered Nepal Police to produce Information Secretary Krishna Bahadur Raut, an arrestee in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, before the court within 24 hours.

A single bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha, acting on the writ petition filed by Raut's wife Usha Karki under Habeas Corpus, asked police to produce Raut before the court.

On July 9, the Central Investigation Bureau had arrested Raut from the domestic terminal of Tribhuvan International Airport when he was trying to leave the capital for his hometown Biratnagar. Police said he was trying to evade arrest after coming to know an arrest warrant had been issued against him.

Police have been asked to submit written clarification through the government attorney on why Raut should not be released under Habeas Corpus. The court has also sought all the evidences against him.

Raut is the first incumbent government official to be held after police started arresting the accused in the case again. A police source said Raut was arrested for his alleged involvement in making fake recommendation to the government that some land inside Lalita Niwas had mohi 'informal tenant' when he was section officer at the Ministry of Land Management.

The same recommendation was ratified by his seniors and ultimately by the secretary and minister and was tabled in the prime minister's council to transfer ownership of government land to private ownership.

The same recommendation was approved by the Cabinet led by Madhav Kumar Nepal.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.