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

The anti-graft body filed the chargesheet at the Special Court, seeking Rs734.956 million in damages, prison terms, fines, and confiscation of the land.

This is the second corruption case brought against Nepal, who is already facing prosecution over the 2010 Patanjali land scam. In June 2025, the CIAA charged him and 92 others over the purchase and subsequent sale of around 32 hectares of land acquired by Patanjali Yogpeeth and Ayurveda Company Nepal under a land-ceiling exemption. Nepal denied wrongdoing.

At the centre of the latest case is Rijal Canning and Company, which was allowed to retain 59 bigha, nine kattha and 12 dhur (around 40 hectares) of land in Morang beyond the statutory landholding ceiling on the condition that it operate a fruit-processing factory. The CIAA says the company did not use the land for that purpose and that the government had decided in 1992 to confiscate the property.

However, rather than completing the confiscation process, the company was later allowed to exchange land, the commission alleges. The CIAA says the decision enabled it to sell two plots in the then ward 3 of Biratnagar Sub-metropolitan City, now in Biratnagar Metropolitan City, and buy cheaper land in then Banigama VDC, Morang.

The two Biratnagar plots, numbered 48 and 71 in land records, covered a combined 4 bigha, five kattha and nine dhur (approximately 2.9 hectares). The company bought an equal area in Banigama for Rs1.285 million and sold the Biratnagar land for Rs83.8625 million, according to the charge sheet. The difference between the recorded purchase and sale prices was Rs82.5775 million.

But the CIAA has assessed the value of the Biratnagar plots at Rs734.956 million and set that amount as the alleged loss to the state. It says the plots should have been confiscated and retained as government or public property, rather than transferred into private hands.

The exemption had been granted solely to support the fruit processing facility and was valid only while the company operated it, according to the charge sheet. After the company allegedly failed to meet the condition, the government decided to confiscate the land in 1992.

The CIAA’s investigation found that the Morang Land Reform Office lifted restrictions on plots 48 and 71 on August 28, 2006 following an interpretation of a Supreme Court order by then land reform officer Umanath Pandey. The commission alleges that this decision cleared the way for the later exchange, although the land had not been used for the stated industrial purpose.

The exchange process gathered pace in 2009. On July 9, 2009 the company’s board decided to sell the Biratnagar plots and buy land in Banigama, authorising its representatives to complete the transaction. It applied to the Land Reform Office on August 23, 2009 after obtaining recommendations from local and district offices.

The CIAA says reports were tailored to support the exchange despite evidence that the land remained unused. The commission says a 2005 report by the Morang Land Reform Office had already found that the two Biratnagar plots were unused and abandoned for years. Morang police had also sought their confiscation, saying the company had failed to meet the exemption conditions and had put the land to private use instead of operating the promised industry.

The Ministry of Land Reform and Management sent the proposal to the Cabinet in November 2009. The Cabinet referred it to its Social Committee, which approved the exchange on December 1, according to the charge sheet.

Rijal, then the committee’s coordinator, is accused of approving the proposal despite knowing that the company had violated the conditions attached to the exemption. The Cabinet was led by Nepal, who served as prime minister from May 2009 to February 2011.

The CIAA has divided the 97 defendants into three groups: those accused of direct involvement in the alleged offence; people named for recovery of the claimed loss; and people whose properties are being targeted for confiscation. Forty-six people, including Nepal and Rijal, are listed as directly involved, according to the charge sheet.

Other defendants include former land reform minister Dambar Shrestha, former chief secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, former secretary Chhabiraj Panta, former joint secretary Ramesh Chandra Adhikari, and former undersecretaries Gandhi Prasad Subedi, Hupendra Mani KC, Nurpati Kandel, Hariraj Panta, Arjun Khadka, Laxman Thapa, and Dhruba Sapkota. Section Officer Balaram Niraula has also been named as a defendant.

Shrestha and Ghimire have died. Ghimire went missing after a vehicle he was travelling in plunged into the Trishuli river in September 2016. The CIAA has named family members, including Ghimire’s daughter Kamala, for the purpose of recovering the alleged loss. Relatives of other deceased officials and company operators have similarly been included; the case against them in this category concerns recovery, not a claim that they personally took part in the decisions.

The company’s former directors and people involved in transferring or acquiring the plots are also among the defendants. The CIAA has sought confiscation of the land transferred through the arrangement and now registered in the names of individuals, companies and institutions.

The case renews scrutiny of Cabinet decisions involving land-ceiling exemptions. In the Patanjali case, Nepal’s Cabinet approved land purchases beyond the legal limit in several districts in 2010, and part of the land acquired in Kavrepalanchok was later sold after another Cabinet decision.