KATHMANDU, April 17: Police have arrested 17 leaders, including Ujjwal Thapa, chairperson of Bibeksheel Nepali Party from Baluwatar. 

The party had gone to pin the national flag in the Lalita Niwas land scam. Official records show that the government acquired with due compensation back in 1964 land measuring 114 ropani [5.8 hectares] at Lalita Niwas, Baluwatar, right behind what is now the speaker's residence. Lalita Niwas actually comprised 284 ropani and it was all nationalized back then.

Various banks and financial institutions have also issued billions of rupees in loans with land at Lalita Niwas as collateral. Lalita Niwas had already been acquired by the government with due compensation for the previous owners.

The general secretary of Nepal Communist Party, Bishnu Paudel, too has been pulled in the scam. According to Gokul Baskota, the Minister for Communication and Technology, Paudel was duped while procuring the land and that the seller needed to compensate him. “He was a victim and he should be compensated,” Baskota had said last week.

 
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