The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Tuesday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress leader and former minister Minendra Rijal, and 95 others over the alleged illegal transfer and sale of land.

The anti-graft body has sought recovery of Rs734.96 million in damages, Special Court Registrar Bedraj Uprety said.

Former land reform minister Dambar Shrestha and Kamala Ghimire, daughter of former chief secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, are also among the defendants. Madhav Prasad went missing after a vehicle he was travelling in plunged into the Trishuli river.

Other defendants include former secretary Chhabiraj Panta, former joint secretary Ramesh Chandra Adhikari, former undersecretaries Gandhi Prasad Subedi, Hupendra Mani KC, Nurpati Kandel, Hariraj Panta, Arjun Khadka, Laxman Thapa and Dhruva Sapkota, and section officer Balaram Niraula among others.

According to the CIAA, Rijal Canning and Company had received an exemption from the land ownership ceiling on condition that it use the additional land in Sunsari and Morang districts for a fruit industry. However, the company failed to use the land for the stipulated purpose, making the Biratnagar plots liable to confiscation and conversion into public property.

The CIAA alleges that government officials colluded with the company's owners to circumvent the confiscation process and facilitate an exchange of the land. Under the arrangement, the company sold two high-value plots in Biratnagar and acquired cheaper land in Banigama, Morang, causing an alleged loss of Rs734.96 million to the state and conferring unlawful benefits on the defendants.