KATHMANDU: Non-Resident Nepali Association(NRNA) had spent almost Rs 300 million to buy three ropani Lalita Niwas land and to build its office building there, but after the Special Court ruled on Thursday that the land which was fraudulently obtained by sellers is liable to be confiscated, NRNA is at wit's end.

NRNA had procured three ropanis Lalita Niwas land from businessmen Shobha Kanta Dhakal, his family members and businessman Ram Kumar Subedi's family members.

The Special Court convicted Dhakal and Subedit for graft and ruled that the land plots sold by Dhakal, Subedi and their family members should be confiscated. Bhatbhateni store owner Min Bahadur Gurung had facilitated the land procurement process on behalf of Dhakal and Subedi.

NRNA office bearers have said that they procured the land in accordance with the legal provision and approval of the concerned government bodies, including the Council of Ministers. Former Chair of NRNA Shesh Ghale had played a key role in collecting funds for the land. The Cabinet had decided on 14 May 2015 to waive registration fee for NRNA for the land plots.

NRNA Adviser Shyam Tamang told THT that while they had the right to claim the money spent on buying the three ropani land from the Dhakal and Subedi families, it was not clear what would happen to the crores of money they spent to build the NRNA office building on the land.

Tamang further said NRNA had exercised due diligence to procure the land plots. NRNA had formed a committee to look for a land plot for the NRNA office building and the Lalita Niwas land plots were selected after visiting almost 30 sites in Kathmandu. He said that his office wrote letters to the Ministry of Land Reforms, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Land Revenue Office in Dillibazar and after that the Ministry of Finance had written to the Council of Ministers to waive registration fee for the purchase deal.

'Normally when a buyer wants to buy a land plot, he/she sees the title certificate and we saw that the seller had the title certificate. We followed all the due procedures in accordance with law and now the court has ruled that the land plots belonged to the government,' Tamang said. How can the general public trust our bureaucracy? he wondered.

Another NRNA Advisor TB Karki said that his organisation would appeal the Special Court verdict in the Supreme Court. 'We had followed all the legal provisions to purchase the land for our office and the money invested to buy the land was collected as donations from the hard-earned money of Nepali nationals living abroad,' he said.