Bara, February 27

A large swath of land captured by the land mafia by forging government document has finally returned to government ownership.

Some 20 bigha land in Jitpursimara Sub-metropolitan City, worth over tens of millions of rupees, which was fraudulently appropriated by Pradhumnaraj Pande, a resident of Kathmandu, has been brought under government ownership.

After Pande could not submit any document vouching his claim on the land within the 35-day notice issued by Simara Land Revenue Office on January 12, the land has now been returned to government ownership.

Earlier, Land Revenue Office of Kalaiya about 10 years ago had declared the land as public land, reckoning its registration process as doubtful. After Pande had filed a writ at the Supreme Court against the Kailaiya Land Revenue Office’s decision, the court supposedly had reckoned the LRO’s decision as faulty and directed it to review the evidence of both sides before taking a decision.

It was not until lately that the Land Revenue Office of Simara, during its investigation of the land grab, had come to find that the so-called order supposedly given by the Supreme Court was fake.

On the basis of the finding of forgery of government document, signature and office stamp, Bara police had then arrested seven persons who were involved in the fraud.

Those arrested included SC former first-class non-gazetted officer Hasta Bahadur Nepali. Pande is in the United States at present.