Police expediting investigation into Lalita Niwas Land grab scam

August 8, Kathmandu: Nepal Police has intensively accelerated the investigation into the Lalita Niwas land grab scam.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has been probing the scam.

The CIB intensified the investigation by obtaining arrest warrants against four former ministers on a charge of their involvement in the scam.

A total of 143 ropanis of land belonging to the government was embezzled from 1992 to 2012. The Lalita Niwas land belonging to the government was brought under individual ownership with forgery.

The Supreme Court (SC) last Sunday ordered to investigate those directly involved in the decision-making level from the then Council of Ministers and those certifying the decisions to take it to the implementation level.

Likewise, the SC also ordered to investigate of those taking the proposal to a higher level of authority.

Accordingly, the CIB obtained an arrest warrant against former Deputy Prime Minister and the then Minister for Physical Planning Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, former State Minister Sanjay Kumar Shah, former Minister of Land Reform Chandra Dev Joshi and former Minister Dambar Bahadur Shrestha, said Spokesperson of Nepal Police Kuber Kadayat.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said that the order of the SC has been put on the police’s notice.

As the pressure is mounting on the CIB following the SC’s order to accelerate the investigation, it is learnt that IGP Kunwar has held a discussion with Attorney General and other government authorities regarding this matter.

So far, 23 individuals have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the scam.

Among them, three have been released on habeas corpus while 20 are still remanded in custody for further investigation, said CIB’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Nawaraj Adhikari. RSS