The District Court, Kathmandu on Wednesday remanded four people arrested in connection with the Lalita Niwas land scam to seven days in police custody.

With the court decision, Sudhir Shah, former election commissioner; Min Bahadur Gurung, owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket; and former employees of Land Revenue Office Dharma Prasad Gautam and Gopal Karki, will remain in police study for a week.

They are accused of forging government documents with the intent of transferring the ownership of the government land located at Lalita Niwas, Baluwatar, in the name of private individuals.

“The court has ordered to keep them in police custody for seven days for further investigation,” said Deepak Dahal, information officer at the district court.

Senior Superintendent Dinesh Acharya of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) said the accused will be kept at CIB office in Maharajgunj.

Although the police had arrested seven accused on Tuesday, they released three of them—Kaladhar Deuja, Surendra Kapali and Hupendra Mani KC—later in the day, citing a stay order issued by the Supreme Court on August 4 last year that prevented their detention for investigation.

Lalita Niwas covers around 300 ropanis [around 15 hectares] and includes the areas of the prime minister’s residence, Nepal Rastra Bank’s central office and some VIP residences.

The CIB had presented the four accused at the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday seeking remand in custody. Following a debate the court sent them to a week of police custody for further investigation.

Except Gopal Karki, the remaining six including those released on Tuesday are also defendants in a corruption case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on February 5, 2020 in connection with the land scam.

But the police plan to prosecute them for forging government documents.

Earlier in the day, CIB chief Additional Inspector General Kiran Bajracharya said at a press conference that the police would recommend prosecuting them for forgery as per the the General Code-2020 BS as the land grab at Baluwatar happened before the Criminal (Code) Act-2017 came into force.

As per Section 283 of the Criminal (Code) Act-2017, the statute of limitations for cases relating to forgery of government documents is two years from the date of the knowledge of the crime. But the General Code-2020 BS does not have the provision of statute of limitations.

Bajracharya said that based on the General Code-2020 BS, cases could be registered against the accused. “We have adequate evidence to prosecute them,” said Bajracharya.

“Law is equal for all and there is no question of exempting any one from prosecution based on their position. The CIB has worked really hard to collect all the evidence,” said Bajracharya.

SP Acharya of the CIB said that a total of 143 ropanis [7.27 hectare] of land of Lalita Niwas was transferred in the name of individuals in different phases after the restoration of democracy in 1990.

“Laita Niwas land was transferred illegally in the name of individuals in four different phases since 1990 under the pretext of returning the seized lands of late Nepali Congress leader Subarna Sumsher Rana to his family members,” said SSP Acharya.

“Fake tenants were created for the purpose [of transferring the ownership of land].”

In fact, the Panchayat regime after the royal coup in 1960 had seized a part of Rana’s property at Lalita Niwas but a significant chunk was acquired by the then government by paying compensation. However, after 1990, efforts were made to return both the legally acquired and seized land to Rana’s family.

A government committee in 2019 had discovered that 136 ropani 14 ana and 2 paisa (6.96487 hectares) of government land had been illegally registered in the name of several individuals. The report triggered an investigation by the CIB and the CIAA on the matter.

Earlier, the anti-graft body in February 2020 had filed cases against 175 people in correction with the land scam. Of them, 110 were accused of corruption while 65 faced cases as the government sought the return of lands they illegally obtained.

Former deputy prime minister and minister for physical infrastructure and transport Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, two former land reforms ministers Dambar Shrestha and Chandra Dev Joshi, along with three former government secretaries, are among those accused of corruption over the illegal transfer of government lands.

Most of those charged with corruption including Gurung had earlier been released by the court on bail.

Nearly a year and a half after the District Attorney Office, Kathmandu returned the investigation report to the CIB requesting further investigation, police have again started apprehending people linked to the land scam.

Early last year, the CIB had recommended to the District Attorney Kathmandu, to prosecute more than 300 people, including five former secretaries.

They included Deep Basnyat, Yubaraj Bhusal, Chhabi Raj Pant, Narayan Gopal Malego and Dinesh Hari Adhikari, along with the owner of Bhatbhateni stores Gurung and the alleged land mafia—Ram Kumar Subedi and Shobhakanta Dhakal.

“Currently, we have arrested people in the first layer of the accused in the scam,” Bajracharya earlier told the Post, indicating that more people could be prosecuted.