The Supreme Court on Friday issued a show cause notice on a habeas corpus petition by three people implicated in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam including Min Bahadur Gurung, the owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket.

Responding to the petition by Gurung, ex-election commissioner Sudhir Shah and former employee at land revenue office Dharma Prasad Gautam, a single bench of Justice Kumar Chudal asked the defendants to furnish reasons for the arrest.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepal Police Headquarters and Central Investigation Bureau have been named defendants in the petition claiming they were arrested unlawfully.

They had moved the apex court with the petition on Wednesday, claiming the arrest was unlawful as the statute of limitation on filing the case was over already.

On Wednesday, the Kathmandu District Court had remanded four people arrested in connection with the scam to seven days in police custody.

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.