The Supreme Court has sought written explanations from the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Office of the Attorney-General, the District Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu (DAO) and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) regarding the exemption of former Prime Ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai as well as former chief secretary Lilamani Poudel from the Lalita Niwas land-grab probe. 

A single bench of Justice Binod Sharma, following Tuesday’s hearing, sought explanations within 15 days from the above-mentioned offices as well as the two former PMs and former chief secretary Poudel in the high-profile scam involving the illegal transfer of the government-owned land (Lalita Niwas) located at Baluwatar in the name of influential individuals. 

The court was responding to a petition from senior advocate Balkrishna Neupane, who claimed that the three had been enjoying immunity in the case because of their clout. 

Additionally, the court has directed that this (Neupane’s) writ be attached with another petition concerning the land-grab, in which the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had given the two former PMs a clean chit, stating that the Cabinet’s policy decisions were beyond the purview of its investigation.  

On Aug 27, DAO had filed cases at the Kathmandu District Court against 310 individuals vis-a-vis the land-grab, taking it as a case involving forgery of government documents, despite recommendations from the CIB to move the court by taking it as a case of organized crime, citing the ‘lack of clinching evidence’.

Among those charged with forgery are former Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, former ministers Chandra Deo Joshi, Dambar Bahadur Shrestha and Chhabi Raj Pant along with former Minister of State Sanjay Sah. Former Chief Commissioner at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Deep Basnyat, and former government secretaries Dineshhari Adhikari, Narayan Gopal Malego and Yubaraj Bhusal have also been facing charges in the same case.

Furthermore, the police (CIB) probe into the case has identified ‘brokers’ Shobhakant Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi as well as Min Bahadur Gurung, the owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket, as ‘important players’. But the ex-PMs have managed to avoid the investigation process by and large, though police have recorded their statements as government witnesses on the basis of an Aug 6 SC directive. In earlier proceedings in August, the court had mandated an inquiry to bring all individuals directly linked to specific Cabinet decisions made on 11 April 2010, 14 May 2010, 13 Aug 2010, and 4 Oct 2013 under scanner. This included those responsible for both drafting as well as executing cabinet decisions.

The Cabinet under Nepal had sanctioned the transfer of government-owned land to private individuals whereas the Bhattarai Cabinet had approved the registration of a portion of the prime property in the name of ‘Pashupati Tikinchha Guthi’.