The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has summoned three more persons involved in transferring ownership of government land in Baluwatar to individuals in connivance with land revenue staffers.
Shobha Kanta Dhakal and Ram Prasad Subedi, identified as land mafia by the probe committee formed by the government under former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital, have been summoned for recording statement. Issuing a notice in Gorkhapatra on Thursday, the constitutional anti-graft body has also summoned Hupendra Mani KC.
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.
The CIAA on Wednesday had summoned 86 persons including families of Dhakal and Subedi. It also summoned the family of Bhatbhateni Super Market promoter Min Bahadur Gurung. Similarly, the fake tenants who helped in the land grab were also summoned.
The families of Dhakal, Subedi and 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.
The CIAA has summoned the majority of those involved in buying and selling of the grabbed land in Baluwatar but none from the Paudel family has been summoned.
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 probe committee formed by the government under former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital has called the Cabinet decisions illegal and recommended their revocation.
The committee had 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.
