Chairman of the CPN (Unified Socialist), Madhav Kumar Nepal, has claimed that he was not involved in any wrongdoing in the Patanjali land transaction case.

Former prime minister Nepal, who is in his home district Rautahat, responded to journalists’ queries immediately after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a corruption case at the Special Court on Thursday against 93 people including Nepal, ministers of his Cabinet, government secretaries and other top officials on charges of being involved in the land scam.

“Someone might have done something by misusing loopholes, but I was not aware of it. I had never imagined such a thing could happen in an institution like Patanjali,” he told journalists.

He insisted that he had done nothing inappropriate and had not encouraged any such acts.

“I am not yet informed properly about what has happened. I need to consult with legal experts,” he said when asked about the anti-graft body filing the case against him and others.

The CIAA filed a corruption case against 93 people at the Special Court on Thursday concerning the Patanjali land misappropriation case.

The anti-graft body has demanded recovery of Rs185.5 million from Nepal for causing losses to the state coffers.

The CIAA has also charged then law minister Prem Bahadur Singh, then land reform minister Dambar Bahadur Shrestha, then chief secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, then secretary at the Ministry of Land Reform Chhabiraj Pant; Shaligram Singh, head of Patanjali Yogpeeth and Ayurveda Company Nepal, secretaries and other top officials.

The case involves alleged misappropriation of land acquired for Patanjali Yogpeeth Nepal under government exemptions for land ownership ceiling.

On February 1, 2010, the Nepal-led Cabinet approved the purchase of 815 ropani (1 ropani equals 0.0509 hectares) of land in Banepa, Kavre under the ceiling exemption for purposes including yoga centres, Ayurvedic institutes, and the herbal industry.

The same Cabinet meeting also approved the purchase of land under ceiling exemption—75 bighas (1 bigha equals 0.677 hectares) in Dang, 300 ropanis in Lamjung, 250 ropanis in Syangja, 15 bighas in Chitwan, 25 bighas in Dhanusha, 150 ropanis in the Kathmandu Valley, and 40 bighas in the Bara-Parsa area—within five years.

However, no investigation has been carried out into the transactions involving the other plots approved under the exemption.

Nepal, who was senior leader of the CPN-UML at the time, was prime minister from May 25, 2009 to February 5, 2011. He later quit the party and formed the CPN (Unified Socialist) in 2021.