KATHMANDU, JULY 3
Nepal Police, which recently reopened the Lalita Niwas land grab scam by arresting some high profile people after being pulled up by the government attorney for failing to provide proper evidences against more than 400 accused in the scam, have delved into the case seriously this time around. Police have arrested two more persons linked to the scam.
Among the arrested are: Ramesh Kumar Pokharel, former chief of Samarjung Company under the home ministry and Dev Narayan Maharjan who had allegedly taken bribe money from the land mafia to play the role of a fake unregistered tenant.
Samarjung Company comes under the home minister and ownership of Lalita Niwas is under its jurisdiction, which means it is responsible for the safety and security of the area.
Yesterday, police arrested three persons, including Baburaja Maharjan another fake unregistered tenant and Shivaji Bhattarai, the then Ward No 5 Chair of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and Ghaman Kumar Karki, an employee at the office of Kathmandu Survey Department.
Bhattarai has been accused of providing fake reference to the government, claiming that the Maharjan duo had been tenants of the land owned by the government.
With these, a total of nine persons, including popular businessman and owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket Min Bahadur Gurung and former Commissioner of the Election Commission Sudhir Kumar Shah, have been arrested. All the arrested are currently in judicial custody on different charges.
Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar Acharya of the Central Investigation Bureau said Pokharel had played a major role as land mafia by recommending that the government provide certain area of Lalita Niwas (the complex that houses the prime minister's residence, Nepal Rastra Bank's central office and houses of VIPs) to Pashupati Tikincha Guthi under a false premise.
Likewise, Maharjan had taken Rs 600,000 from the land mafia to take fake ownership as the unauthorised tenant, who, as per the existing rules, can get ownership of 50 per cent of the land.
A file was presented to former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai's Cabinet on 1 August 2012 asking to transfer five ropani of government owned Lalita Niwas to Pashupati Tikincha Guthi. The recommendation was made by the Land Revenue Ministry based upon the grand design of land mafia and reports by Samarjung company, and Guthi Sansthan, among others. Eight days later (on August 9), the then government led by Bhattarai decided to register a case at the Social Committee of the Ministers' Cabinet to make a report on the case.
Later, the Bhattarai-led government on October 4 made recommendation to allow transfer of the land to Pashupati Tikincha Guthi.
Eventually, land covering over five ropani area was transferred to Pashupati Tikincha Guthi and other fake unauthorised private owners within a year. Police said after the transfer was completed, the land mafia had again transferred the land owned by fake tenants to their ownership within 10 days.
Earlier, on 2 January 2022, the Office of Kathmandu District Attorney had refused to file case against the accused saying that the CIB's investigation and evidences were not enough.
However, the CIB now claims they have detailed timeline and enough documents and other evidences to indict the accused.
Police unfolded four stages in which the 143 ropani (over 78,000 square feet) area of government property was transferred to private ownership.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 4, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
