Municipality legal officer Umakanta Paudel said that the CIAA and NVC seized files related to the land sale. “The initial process of interrogations has begun," said legal officer Paudel, adding, “We can make arrests if needed.”
According to him, land purchasers have also filed an application demanding investigation into the matter.
The local administration has begun investigations only since Tuesday. The District Administration Office has assigned legal officer Paudel to the investigations. Paudel grilled the committee chairman and other officials allegedly involved in selling plots of municipality land and distributing the proceeds among themselves.
Paudel said that there are some legal constraints on the investigation, adding, “We will take action immediately once anybody is found guilty.”
The committee office has remained locked for the last 10 days. Local people locked the office demanding punishment of those involved in selling the land and dividing up the money.
Nepali Congress, Maoist, UML and other political party local leaders had sold three plots at Bhaluwang Municipality. However, Rastriya Janamorcha Party played spoilsport and organized a press conference stating it would not accept its share of the money raised from the sale. It claimed that leaders representing other parties on the town development committee distributed Rs 75,000-110,000 each among themselves.
He said representatives of the Maoists and Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) took the biggest share of Rs 110,000 each, while the Nepali Congress took Rs 100,000 and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist Rs 75,000.
Two employees of the Department of Forest were also given Rs 75,000 each as bribes.
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