Police on Sunday arrested one more individual in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab scam.

A team of the Central Investigation Bureau detained Arun Kumar Shrestha, a former employee of the survey office, from Kathmandu, said Superintendent of Police Dinesh Acharya.

Shrestha, the former government employee, is accused of measuring the government land and helping in transferring it to an individual’s name.

A total of 19 people including former election commissioner Sudhir Kumar Shah and Bhatbhateni Supermarket owner Min Bahadur Gurung have so far been arrested in connection with the scam in which the government land was transferred in the names of individuals.

Krishna Bahadur Raut, secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, who was also detained in connection with the case, was released on Friday following an order from the Supreme Court. A division bench, however, refused to release three other accused including Gurung.

During the same hearing, the apex quashed a writ petition by 17 accused including the then joint secretary duo Kaladhar Deuja and Tika Ram Ghimire. The bench vacated an earlier interim order issued by a single bench of Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada last year.

The police had arrested seven suspects on June 27 but released Deuja, Surendra Kapali and Hupendra Mani KC later in the day owing to the stay order. Deuja was rearrested on Friday.

Lalita Niwas covers some 300 ropanis [around 15 hectares] of land at Baluwatar adjoining the prime minister’s official residence and Nepal Rastra Bank central office and some other residences of top government officials.