Police on Tuesday arrested former under-secretary Bal Krishna Shrestha in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab scam.

A police team from the Central Investigation Bureau detained Shrestha from Kathmandu.

Shrestha, the then senior divisional engineer at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, has been accused of signing a document for providing land to a fake tenant that was established through forged documents.

Bal Krishna has been accused of signing the proposal that was prepared by another engineer Rajendra Shrestha through alleged forgery and forwarding it to the ministry for approval.

He has also been charged with altering the schedule of the decision regarding the extension of the premises towards the right side of the Prime Minister's residence.

Likewise, police also arrested Rudra Prasad Shrestha, former director general at the department of land reform and management in connection with the scam.

Earlier today, police arrested two more people in connection with the scam.

Dillibazar Land Revenue Office employees Yograj Poudel and Narayanraj Mishra were taken into police custody for allegedly forging government documents to transfer the ownership of the government located at the Lalita Niwas, said Central Investigation Bureau.

Poudel is a non-gazetted first-class officer while Mishara is a second-class officer.

With this, a total of 16 arrests have been made in connection with the scam so far.