Kathmandu, March 16 The Special Court today sent former officer of Dillibazar Land Revenue Office, Krishna Prasad Paudel, who is one of the accused in the Lalita Niwas land grab case, to judicial custody till the final verdicts in the case. The order to send Paudel to judicial custody was passed by the bench of judges comprising Shivraj Adhikari and Chandra Bahadur Saru. Paudel is the first among the 175 defendants in the case to appear before the court to contest the case. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had indicted Paudel in the Lalita Niwas land grab case accusing him of embezzling Rs 32.19 crore. The CIAA had named some high profile people as defendants in the case, including former deputy prime minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, former ministers Chandra Dev Joshi and Dambar Shrestha for illegally registering more than 284 ropanis of government and guthi (trust) land at Lalita Niwas in Baluwatar in the names of individuals abusing their authority.