KATHMANDU: Police recently arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in defrauding a land owner of Chitwan district by claiming themselves as the owners and selling the property at an underestimated rate.

Devendra Thapa (48) and Nagendra Karki (46) were arrested by a team deployed from the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on December 15, 2016, police said.

Likewise, Min Bahadur Bhattarai (34) was arrested on December 21 from Lagankhel of Lalitpur.

The trio had sold a land plot owned by Lokendra Raj Pathak in Bhandara-2 of Chitwan district claiming themselves the owners, to an imagined name of Jeevan Raj Pathak, according to police.

They had also undervalued the worth of the land with an area of three bigaha, one kaththa and five dhur to just Rs 100,000 during the transaction registered on March 12, 2010.

The trio had forged the owner's citizenship card and land registration certificate using fake government stamps in cahoots with some government staff, police claimed.

Later, on April 19, 2010, the group sold the land to the Natural Flower and Herbal Pvt Ltd, based in Makawanpur district at Rs 4.95 million.

The victim had filed an application at the Chitwan District Court after knowing that his land was sold by alleged frauds. The case is still awaiting the final verdict.

Meanwhile, police said the trio would be charged for three crimes: forgery of government documents, forgery of government seal and fraud.