KATHMANDU, March 17: The Special Court on Monday sent Krishna Prasad Poudel, the then officer at Dilli Bazaar Land Revenue Office, to the judicial custody. Poudel has been accused of being involved in registering the government-owned land in Baluwatar in the name of private individuals. 

After recording his statement, the Special Court established for dealing with corruption cases in fast-track manner, ordered the police administration to send the accused to judicial custody.

A division bench of judges led by the court chairman Shiva Raj Adhikari and Chandra Bahadur Saru issued such order after the preliminary hearing.

Poudel is the first accused to appear before the court after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against 175 on charge of registering the public land as private properties. 

The anti-graft body has sought Rs 320 million from the accused. 

In the first week of February, the CIAA had filed a charge-sheet against those 175 individuals, including some erstwhile bigwigs, at the court accusing them of involvement in illegally registering Lalita Niwas land in the names of various individuals.

Nepali Congress leader and former deputy prime minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar, former ministers Chandra Dev Joshi, Chhabiraj Pant and Dambar Shrestha, former government secretary Dinesh Hari Adhikari and former secretary and CIAA ex-chief Deep Basnyat, are among those accused in the land scam. 

The CIAA has sought court order to bring the Lalita Niwas land back under the government’s name and impose billions in fines on those found guilty.

 
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