RAJBIRAJ, JULY 14
Saptari Court has convicted and handed down prison sentence to five persons, including a staffer at the Land Revenue Office, over land fraud. They were convicted of secretly selling a plot of land in Rajbiraj Municipality without the knowledge of the owner.
Land Revenue Office Saptari first class non-gazetted officer Sitaram Chaudhary and office assistant Hari Narayan Sharma of Rajbiraj-9 have been slapped with six years in prison each.
Both Chaudhary and Sharma have already served part of the prison term while in remand.
"While they faced a year in prison for fraud, an additional prison sentence was incurred due to the fact that they were government employees and involved in the fraud in that capacity," said the court's registrar, adding that the case against another staff member - Uddhav Khatiwada of Sunsari's Duhabi-4 who died in the prison last year - was scrapped.
A 58-year-old Khatiwada was sick while he was in remand in connection with the case in Rajbiraj prison and died in the course of treatment.
Similarly, Devaranidevi Das of Rajbiraj-7 and Bhuranidevi Sah of Dakneshwori Municipality have each got 4 years in prison. Both of them had been released on bail three years ago following their arrest. While another person involved in the land fraud - Fudan Sah (78) of Rajbiraj-11 - has been released as he has already completed his prison sentence while in remand itself, his son Shankar Sah Teli and another person involved in the case, who is government employee Sharma's relative, are at large.
As learnt, all of them had colluded to sell a plot of land worth tens of millions of rupees belonging to Usha Aryal of Rajbiraj Municipality-7 while she was in America. Upon being aware of the fraud when she returned to Nepal, Aryal had knocked on the door of police and court to get her land back.
Saptari District Court's Judge Ishwormani Ojha's bench had delivered the verdict.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 15, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
