Nepal Police has intensively accelerated 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 charge of their involvement in the scam.
A total of 143 ropani of land belonging to the government was embezzled from 2049 BS to 2069 BS. The Lalita Niwas land belonging to the government was brought under individual ownership with forgery.
The Supreme Court (SC) on last Sunday had ordered to investigate those directly involved in decision making 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 those taking the proposal to the higher level or 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 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 discussions with the 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 the habeas corpus while 20 are still remanded in custody for further investigation, said CIB's Superintendent of Police (SP) Nawaraj Adhikari.
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