Rupandehi District Court has ordered gaming operator Silver Heritage Investment, which operates the five-star Tiger Palace Resort, to remove all structures it constructed on government, public and community land.
Judge Krishna Murari Siwakoti passed the verdict to this effect on Thursday.
On July 4, 2019, the Lumbini Nalkul Water Consumers’ Association, Rupandehi, a Bhairahawa-based groundwater users group, filed a writ demanding the recovery of 9 kattha (3,205 square metres) of public land.
The association has accused the resort of encroaching on plot numbers 120, 148, 152 and 190 belonging to a public canal and plot number 73 belonging to the government.
Petitioner Lekhnath Pokhrel told the Post that the full text of the order would be released in a month. “With Thursday’s verdict, Silver Heritage Investment, however, can appeal to the high court.”
According to him, structures built on 12 kattha [4,056 square metres] of land have been deemed illegal.
This will partially affect the casino floor, swimming pool, one villa in front of the swimming pool and one room in the resort.
Similarly, six kattha of land, which is 10 metres ahead on the left side from the main entrance gate, has been deemed as an illegal possession by Silver Heritage Investment.
Silver Heritage Investment is the locally registered subsidiary of Silver Heritage Group. The group debuted in Nepal in 2015 with the opening of The Millionaire’s Club & Casino at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kathmandu. In 2017, it opened the 100-room Tiger Palace Resort in Bhairahawa, which is the first integrated five-star casino resort in South Asia.
On July 5, 2019, the court issued an interim order to Tiger One and Silver Heritage Investment of Tilottama Municipality-7, forbidding it to sell shares or build anything on the plot where the five-star Tiger Palace Resort stands, pending a full verdict on a writ petition charging encroachment on public land.
In November 2021, the court slapped gaming operator Tiger One and Silver Heritage Investment with a fine of Rs3,000 for contempt of court.
It was found the defendants have conducted the purchase and sale of shares, undergone agreements and constructed physical structures including a new house and party hall on the land.
According to the documents seen by the Post at that time, the sale and purchase agreements of the shares and properties of Silver Heritage Investment were completed on August 3, 2021.
The documents showed that the buyers were United States-based Manhattan Heights Group, Bhusal Investment of Bhairahawa and Kathmandu-based Samrat Group.
Built at a cost of Rs6 billion, the Tiger Palace Resort has been valued at Rs3.97 billion.
In August 2019, non-resident Nepali Indra Bahadur Thapa offered to buy the Tiger Palace Resort in Bhairahawa at an enterprise value of $33.9 million. But the deal fell through after Thapa failed to come up with the money.
At that time, three Nepali business houses—Chaudhary Group, IME Group and Vishal Group—were in the fray to buy the resort after the Silver Heritage Group put it up for sale or partnership.
The 100-room property is the first integrated five-star casino resort in South Asia. Silver Heritage had planned to offer 400 guest rooms in the second phase. It was awarded a five-star rating by the Department of Tourism in November 2017.
Tiger Palace is spread over 17 bighas and features two villas, a gym, spa, swimming pools, restaurants and meeting and banquet facilities suitable for weddings. The resort has a 2,471 square-metre casino floor.
Sangam Prasain is Business Editor at The Kathmandu Post, covering tourism, agriculture, mountaineering, aviation, infrastructure and other economic affairs. He joined The Kathmandu Post in October 2009.
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