The probe committee formed by the government to investigate Baluwatar land grab has told Land Management Minister Padma Aryal that there were no tenants in the land of Lalita Niwas.
Chairman of the committee and former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital and member Maheshwore Kumar Thapa were summoned by Aryal at her ministry a few days back saying new evidence about tenants and guthi related to the land has been found.
Minister Aryal has publicly defended CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel, who has been dragged into the scam after eight annas of grabbed land has found to have been transferred to his son, claiming the land was transferred to Paudel's son after transfer of title for six times beginning from tenants. But records at the Land Revenue Office show that the land was transferred from the reported tenant to the families of Shobha Kant Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi and then to Paudel's son.
The probe committee, that submitted its report to the government at the end of 2018, has concluded that there were no tenants in the land neither was it owned by guthi.
"Do send the documents to National Forensic Science Laboratory to check authenticity if someone comes showing documents that there were tenants in the grabbed land of Baluwatar," a staffer present during the meeting with Minister Aryal quoted Trital as saying when Aryal pointed that there was new evidence about tenants.
Trital turned to the staffers of Land Revenue Department and Land Reform Department and asked them if they have any evidence about tenants in that land. "We found this document, sir," one of the staffers replied. "This document apparently shows that the tenant was established on this date in this manner."
Trital pointed that the document was not produced when his committee was investigating the scam and told the staffers that he will ask two questions and they can verify authenticity of the document after that.
"Suvarna Shumsher transferred the land (to his family members) on July 13, 1960. Tenancy right was not established in Nepal then and if someone else was tilling the land it would have been mentioned in the document. If there was guthi in the land, the land office would have mentioned that. Do you have evidence showing these things were mentioned?" Trital asked. "We don't have that."
"The new act about land was brought on November 20, 1964. The government issued notice to acquire six palaces including Lalita Niwas on November 30. Could anyone have applied and established tenancy right in those 10 days?" Trital again asked with the staffers. "Tenancy right cannot be established in 10 days," one of the staffers answered. Other staffers concurred.
"The government acquired all the land of Lalita Niwas. It did not spare land of tenants surrounding the area after acquiring the land. There is, therefore, no ground to claim that there were tenants in that land at any time," he explained to the staffers.
Minister Aryal after listening to Trital slammed the staffers who brought the so-called evidence saying they had wrong views about the land even as the probe committee members were clear, according to a staffer present there.
She then asked the staffers how they got the documents but they did not answer.
"Do send the documents to National Forensic Science Laboratory to check authenticity if someone comes showing documents that there were tenants or guthi in the grabbed land of Baluwatar," Trital told Minister Aryal.
The Trital committee had identified Dhakal and Subedi as the masterminds behind encroachment of 299 ropanis land of Lalita Niwas acquired by the government. The duo has been absconding after the land grab was made public by the media.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has also been investigating against Dhakal and Subedi while the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has also been investigating the scam, as per the committee's recommendations.
The families of Dhakal, Subedi and Bhatbhateni Super Market promoter Min Bahadur Gurung still own 28 ropanis of land in Baluwatar.
Eight annas of land (plot number 309 and 3015) has been transferred to son of CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel from Uma Dhakal and Madhavi Subedi, wives of Dhakal and Subedi respectively.
Paudel has been dragged in the after transfer of the grabbed land in the name of his son Navin.
Some CPN leaders citing the then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal have told Setopati that Paudel facilitated Cabinet decisions to provide grounds for the land grab and had even arranged donation of Rs 40 million to the party in return for the decisions.
The Trital committee has called the Cabinet decisions illegal and recommended their revocation.
The committee submitted the report to the government in December 2018 concluding that the land transferred to individuals belonged to the government.
The committee had advised the government to ask the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police to investigate how ownership of the land was transferred to individuals and investigate the state of such government land across the country.
The committee stated that the then king Mahendra after the coup in 1961 had confiscated 14 ropanis land of Nepali Congress leader Suvarna Shumsher Rana and his father Kanchan Shumsher in Baluwatar. The government four years later acquired 285 ropanis of Rana's land in Baluwatar by paying compensation.
The PM's residence, chief justice's residence, speaker's residence and the central office of Nepal Rastra Bank are currently situated in 172 ropanis out of that 285 ropanis.
Land mafia in connivance with staffers at the Land Revenue Office has transferred ownership of the remaining 113 ropanis of land to different individuals, the committee has concluded. The land owned by Paudel is out of that 113 ropanis
