Spare no one

People suspect that while ‘small fry’ fall into legal net, ‘big fish’ in Lalita Niwas scam will get away.

The unfolding Lalita Niwas land grab case is perhaps the best illustration of the kind of collusion between Nepali bureaucrats, businessmen and top politicians the country has become notorious for of late. First, bureaucrats in the land revenue office in Kathmandu, amply aided and abetted by their political masters, transfer nearly seven hectares of state’s land in the names of dozens of individuals. Then, when their wrongdoing came to light, top political leaders used their clout to suppress investigation—as happened a year and half ago when the District Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu impeded the probe when it inexplicably returned a detailed investigation report on the scam to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police. Now, the CIB has made seven new arrests based on fresh investigation around the forgery of documents that were required to authenticate the illegal transfer of land. Among the seven arrested were ex-election commissioner Sudhir Shah and owner of Bhatbhateni supermarket chain Min Bahadur Gurung. Earlier, on February 5, 2020, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the constitutional anti-graft body, had filed corruption cases against 175 individuals in relation to the scam, including former deputy prime minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, two former ministers for land reforms and three government secretaries.