" Kathmandu District Attorney's Office had refused to file case against 400 people "

Arrest warrants has been issued against four former ministers for their alleged involvement in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, allowing police to apprehend the ministers when necessary.

The individuals facing arrest warrants are: former deputy prime minister Bijay Kumar Gachchadar, former land reforms minister Chandra Dev Joshi, former land reforms minister Dambar Shrestha, and former state minister Sanjay Kumar Sah.

Kathmandu District Court today acting on the request of Central Investigation Bureau allowed the arrests.

CIB's move is backed by the Supreme Court, which yesterday directed investigative authorities of the land grab scam to apprehend higher level authorities, 'top layer of the pyramid'.

The court order allowed ministers who took a proposal to the Cabinet to transfer to the fake Mohi (unofficial tenant) the ownership of Lalita Niwas land to be arrested. The order even paved the way for police to apprehend former PMs Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The Cabinet meetings of 11 April 2010, 14 May 2010, 13 August 2010 and 4 October 2012 had allowed the transfer of government land to the fake Mohi. One of the decisions allowed to provide new plots to the fake mohi as the plot they were initially given were occupied by other buildings in the vicinity. All four Mohis who were transferred the land based on the decision are now in judicial custody.

However, this is not the first time authorities have indicted ministers like Gachchadar, Shrestha and Joshi. A separate investigation by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had also summoned them as suspects, but no verdict was reached.

Currently, 20 accused individuals, including high profile people are in CIB custody.

This is the second time CIB has probed the scam.

CIB had to reinvestigate the case after the Office of Kathmandu District Attorney, earlier, refused to file case against 400 people citing inadequate evidence.

Police have now concluded that over 143 ropani land of Lalita Niwas (the complex that houses the prime minister's residence, Nepal Rastra Bank's central office and houses of VIPs), were transferred to private ownership through the collective efforts of land mafia, political leaders and government employees.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 8, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.