KATHMANDU, June 28: Nepal Police has claimed that there is no statute of limitation in the Lalita Niwas land grab scam where some 113 ropanis of government land of Lalita Niwas located in Baluwatar was illegally transferred. 

On Wednesday, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police held a press conference and said that the case will be filed based on the law that existed before the new civil law was issued. According to the police, there is no statute of limitations when prosecuting a case according to the old law. CIB chief AIG Kiran Bajracharya said that as there is no statute of limitation in government written records according to the Civil Code 2020, the statute of limitations does not apply to the case of Lalita Niwas. He said that since the scam took place before the introduction of the new civil law, the current law would not be applicable and there would be no question that the case would not be registered. He said that there could be some manipulation in this case, so the police have sufficient evidence to answer.  

He said, “There is no question of not registering this case. We have worked hard to gather evidence. If the case is registered, it will proceed, there will be no doubt about the deadline, and there is enough evidence to answer them even if there is any manipulation.”

In a press conference, SSP Dinesh Acharya of CIB said that 143 ropanis of land of Lalita Niwas was stolen step by step after 2047. He said that in the name of returning the land to Ranas, the land was embezzled by creating fake Mohi and Guthi. He said that Bhatbhateni supermarket owner Meen Bahadur Gurung, the then Land Revenue officer Dharma Prasad Gautam, Land Revenue Office employee Gopal Karki and the then Bhaktapur Land Revenue Office chief Sudhir Shah were arrested in the Lalita Niwas land scam and the investigation is ongoing.

He said, “We arrested four people on Tuesday in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab scam. We have proceeded with further investigation and action against them. Min Bahadur Gurung, Dharma Prasad Gautam, Gopal Karki, Sudhir Shah have been detained and we have proceeded with the arrest process. As the government land has been transferred, there is no statute of limitation. We have moved forward accordingly. There is a lot of looting of government land. There is no statute of limitation in this case. More than 29 ropanis of government land appear to be registered in the name of Min Bahadur Gurung and his family.”

The case filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority in the Lalita Niwas case is also under consideration.

 
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