“We on Wednesday issued the arrest warrants against two of the five identified culprits whose addresses were known,” said Lal Mani Acharya, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) at Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu.[break]
As for the remaining three -- Bhaju Dhruba lama, Kanchha Lama and Madhusudan Mishra -- the police has urged the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management (MoLRM) to make their addresses known.
The Metropolitan Police Range has further asked the Chabahil Survey Office (SO) to inform it about the whereabouts of two of its staffers -- Tara Lama and Bajrabhan Yadav -- who were also involved in the deal.
“We will arrest them as soon as the office informs us of their whereabouts,” said Acharya.
Ministry of Land Reforms and Management (MoLRM) had handed over the case to the Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu on August 20, after it foiled attempts the land dealers to take control of over 800 ropanis (100 acres) of land in the north-eastern part of the Valley.
MoLRM had carried out a sudden investigation following a tip off after which it had found out that the five land dealers had successfully inserted their names in the field-books in connivance with staff at the Survey Office, establishing themselves as owners of 88 acres of public and 12 acres of privately owned land.
By the time the ministry intervened, the group had already succeeded in manipulating the field-books at Chabahil SO. This had established their legal ownership to the plots. But the Ministry forced the SO to cancel the registration. The ministry´s investigation team had also pin-pointed involvement of four government officials, including chief of Chabahil SO Ram Binay Singh in the scam.
“We do not know whether the persons whose names found way into field books are actual manipulators or they were used as pawns by others,” said a source at MoLRM.
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