Lalita Niwas land grab scam: PMO facilitated issuance of stay order by SC

Published On: July 4, 2023 01:30 PM NPT By: Tapendra Karki

KATHMANDU, July 4: After it became known that the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police could file a case of forgery in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) gave an evasive response when some of the accused appealed to the Supreme Court about a year ago. That’s how the accused got a 'stay order' from the court. The PMO had sent a reply to the Supreme Court on September 2 last year, before the court issued a 'stay order' to 17 accused in the Lalita Niwas case, saying that the police were trying to arrest them in a forgery case.

According to the police officers carrying out the investigation, the PMO gave an evasive response about the statute of limitation when the arrest warrant was obtained from the court against 406 people. "As it is a subject to be discussed after the filing of the case - whether the previous Civil Code, 2020 BS or the existing National Civil Code, 2074 BS would be applied to the issue of statute of limitation - it is not appropriate for the court to issue an order and to file a writ petition before the filing of the case without following the judicial process,” the PMO had said.

Only after that, the Supreme Court issued an stay order against the arrest of 61- year-old Tikaram Ghimire, 60-year-old Tejraj Pandey, Ramprasad Subedi, 62-year-old Mohammad Sabir Hussain, 52-year-old Baliram Prasad Teli, 66-year-old Dinesh Prasad Sharma, 64-year-old Laxminarayan Upreti, 57-year-old Jay Prasad of Budhanilkantha Municipality-8. Regmi, 72-year-old Haribol Acharya, 72-year-old Tika Bahadur BC, 55-year-old Srihari Pudasaini, 52-year-old Angurkumar Sigdel, 61-year-old Tankanath Paudel and 62-year-old Kedar Prasad Shrestha. Hupendra Mani KC, Kaladhar Deuja and Surendraman Kapali are among those who have received the stay order.

After learning that the CIB, which has been investigating the Lalita Niwas land scam, was about to arrest them, the accused got a stay order on September 2, 2022. As many as 17 people had filed a petition against the government on July 20,2022 with the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Office, Ministry of Home Affairs, Attorney General's Office, Police Headquarters, Kathmandu District Court, Office of Attorney General, CIB and Samarjung Company Baluwatar.

The first debate on the writ petition was held on August 2, 2022. Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma was assigned to the bench, but the hearing did not take place that day. On August 4, 2022, the bench of Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada issued an interim order not to arrest the 17 accused. Senior advocates Shambhu Thapa, Badri Bahadur Karki, Raman Kumar Shrestha, Ram Prasad Poudel and advocate Sharad Prasad Koirala argued on behalf of the 17 people. According to the CIB, on January 6, 2022, after the district attorney's office returned the investigation report with 34 points of 'instructions', it was found that the court had issued a stay order against their arrest.

The CIB is investigating the issue of 'forgery of government documents' as per the provisions of the Civil Code 2020 BS. According to that Act, there is no statute of limitation to take the case to court for the crime of tampering with government documents. Pushpa Raj Upadhyay, Indra Prasad Dhungana, Hari Krishna Timilsina, Krishna Paudel, Prem Bahadur Khapung, Shankar Prasad Subedi, Kamal Ghimire, Dev Bahadur Lamichhane, Janak Bhandari, Jeet Bahadur Thapa, Dumbar Shrestha, Rajendraman Shrestha, Saroj Raj Bhandari, Ashok Nath Upreti, Binod Kumar Gautam, Semanta Raj Chapagain, Dinesh Adhikari, Hariprasad Joshi, Baliram Teli, Dilip Bhatta, Shailendra Paudel, Jaiprasad Regmi, Badri Bahadur Karki, who are in the wanted list of CIB, are absconding. The police are searching for them but they doubt that the absconding accused may be able to get a stay order from the court.

According to the National Criminal Procedure Code 2074 BS, there is a legal provision that the indictment must be filed in the court within two years from the date of knowledge. The accused have tried to take the help of the court regarding the same issue. "It seems that the head of the office of Samarjung Company filed a complaint at the Police Headquarters, CIB on February 10, 2020 and the said application was registered on February 14, 2020," said Justice Khatiwada's order at the time. Responding to the writ petition, Justice Khatiwada gave an order stating that the National Criminal Procedure Code 2074 BS would apply, as it appeared from the documents including the written reply submitted by the CIB that there is an investigation into the crime of fraud and forgery.

According to Section 18 of Chapter 1 of Part 4 of National Civil Code 2020 BS, there is no statute of limitation for cases of forging government documents. In a letter written to the CIB on January 11, 2020, on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office, the latter also gave 34 points of instructions to complete the investigation and bring a case in accordance with the Civil Code 2020 BS. The then Council of Ministers on March 16, 2019 assigned the CIB to investigate the Lalita Niwas land grab scam. At that time, Samarjung Company, which manages the Lalita Niwas land, filed a complaint only on February 10, 2020. The attorney general’s office said that the date on which the CIB was entrusted with the investigation by the Council of Ministers was calculated as the statute of limitation. But now the statute of limitation is unlimited.