KATHMANDU, JULY 24

Two more people were arrested in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam today. With this, a total of 22 accused are in judicial custody.

Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police arrested Sanjay Kumar Maharjan and Sakulanand Maharjan for colluding with the land mafia by disguising themselves as Mohi (informal tenants) of the government-owned Lalita Niwas.

Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Acharya of CIB informed that Ram Kumar Subedi, the main accused mastermind behind the scam, collaborated with businessmen like Min Bahadur Gurung and Sobhakant Dhakal to lure the Maharjan duo into the scam.

Earlier, Dev Narayan Maharjan and Babu Raja Maharjan of Kathmandu were arrested for similar offence. All of them are said to have taken bribe money of Rs 600,000 from the land mafia.

Yesterday, police arrested Arun Kumar Shrestha, a former employee of the Department of Survey, for falsifying data in the same case.

So far, police have detained 22 people in the case. The CIB has already received permission from the court to arrest more than 300 people who could be linked to the offence.

Those under judicial custody are former Election Commissioner Sudhir Kumar Shah, Bhatbhateni Super Market owner Min Bahadur Gurung and many government employees.

On July 21, the Supreme Court had issued order to release incumbent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Krishna Bahadur Raut on the basis of habeas corpus writ filed by Raut's wife. He was arrested on July 9. He is the only incumbent government official arrested in the case so far.

The CIB is keenly pursuing reinvestigation of the transfer of 143 ropani (over 78,000 square feet) area of Lalita Niwas to private ownership.

Police concluded that middlemen, land mafia, government employees and political leaders had worked in collusion in the various four levels to transfer the land of Lalita Niwas (the complex that houses the prime minister's residence, Nepal Rastra Bank's central office and houses of VIPs) to private ownership from early 1990s.

Police have also secured arrest warrant for more than 300 people connected to the offence. Police are arresting these people only on the basis of solid evidence.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 25, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.