The Supreme Court on Friday scrapped the habeas corpus writ petitions demanding release of those accused in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, thus continuing the judicial custody of everyone except Krishna Bahadur Raut, the secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Lawyers on behalf of Raut, Min Bahadur Gurung, chairman and managing director of Bhatbhateni Supermarket; ex-election commissioner Sudhir Shah; and former employee at Land Revenue Office Dharma Prasad Gautam, had moved the Supreme Court with habeas corpus petitions seeking the release of their clients. The division bench of justices Prakash Dhungana and Nahakul Subedi, after conducting hearings for five days, scrapped the petitions saying the arrests and detentions were lawful and in line with a district court order.

“However, the bench ordered the release of secretary Raut as it didn't find adequate reasons to keep him in judicial custody,” Bimal Poudel, the Supreme Court spokesman, told the Post. While ordering Raut’s release, the court cited an earlier decision of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) not to lodge a case against Raut in connection with the land scam.

“As he doesn't appear to be in a position to be able to influence the case even if freed, there is no ground to keep him in custody,” said the court order. The court, however, stopped him from leaving the country until the conclusion of the investigation.

On Friday, the Kathmandu District Court had extended the custody of all the four accused, by five days. With the apex court's decision, Raut will be released while the custody of three others will continue until the final investigation in the case is concluded.

Responding to a petition by the four accused, the court, on July 14 had issued a show cause notice against the government and the police asking them to furnish reasons for the arrests. The final hearing began on Monday after the court received written clarifications from the government agencies.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also opened the door for the arrest of 17 others who were out of police detention following a court order in July last year. They were released following a Supreme Court stay order.

The lawyers of the plaintiffs had claimed that there were no grounds to arrest them as the police had missed the statute of limitations.

After the investigation, the CIAA, the constitutional anti-graft body, filed a case on February 5, 2020 in connection with the land scam.

Nearly a year and half after the District Attorney Office, Kathmandu returned the investigation report to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) requesting further probe into the land scam, the police have again started apprehending suspects.

The anti-graft body had filed cases against 175 individuals. Of them, 110 were accused of corruption, while 65 persons faced cases as the government sought the return of lands illegally obtained by them.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, and 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 the government land.

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

After completing a separate investigation in the forgery of government documents in connection with the land scam, the CIB on January 6 last year had submitted its investigation report to the District Attorney Office, Kathmandu, recommending prosecution of more than 300 people including some top retired officials.

As per Section 283 of the Criminal (Code) Act-2017, the statute of limitations for cases of forgery of government documents is two years from the date of the knowledge of the crime.

But the District Attorney Office returned the police document recommending more investigations so that they could be prosecuted based on the General Code-2020 BS as the land grab at Baluwatar happened before the Criminal (Code) Act-2017 came into force.

Point Number 18 under the ‘Forged Document or Forgery’ section of the General Code states: “If a suit on any matter other than on the matter of forgery or fraud of a document bearing government seal or of any other document held in a government office or on any matter of verbal forgery or saying or writing any false designation or of dismissal of employees by saying or writing so is not filed within six months of its knowledge, from the date of cause of action, the suit shall not be entertained.”