Kathmandu, Nov 4: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has alleged that public land was misappropriated through a land swap in a corruption case involving former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, former minister Dr Minendra Rijal and several senior officials.
According to the CIAA investigation, officials used claims that the land had become a dumping site and a haven for drug users to justify swapping public land intended for a fruit processing industry.
The case concerns public land at plot numbers 48 and 71 in Ward 3 of Biratnagar. The CIAA alleges that, through collusion, higher-value public land was transferred to a company and replaced with lower-value land elsewhere, generating illegal private gains.
The commission claims the scheme caused the state a loss of Rs 734,956,000. It alleges that officials at the Land Reform Office in Morang and other agencies prepared false recommendations and sent them to the Prime Minister’s Office to facilitate the swap.
Rijal, who headed the Social Committee of the Cabinet during Nepal’s premiership, allegedly pushed the decision to facilitate illegal gains for those involved.
The Cabinet approved the land swap on December 31, 2009, in line with a prior agreement.
In 1975, the government had granted more than 59 bighas of public land to Rijal Canning and Company Pvt Ltd on the condition that it operate a fruit processing industry. The land was supposed to revert to government ownership if the company failed to meet the conditions.
The CIAA says the company abandoned the land without operating the industry. In 1991, the government had already decided to confiscate it for violating the conditions.
However, as the land faced confiscation, officials allegedly prepared false inspection reports claiming it had become a dumping site and a gathering place for drug users. These reports were then used to recommend selling the land and acquiring cheaper property elsewhere.
The investigation also found that the Morang District Police Office had requested the Land Reform Office to confiscate the plots and hand them over to the police, citing the company’s failure to comply with the original conditions and its private use of the land.
The CIAA alleges that officials knowingly pushed the proposal through various administrative levels, the Ministry of Land Reform and Management, and the Cabinet’s Social Committee, despite knowing that the land belonged to the state.
The commission argues that the company’s actual objective was to sell valuable land within Biratnagar and acquire cheaper land in Banigama, causing losses to the government while securing illegal benefits for the accused.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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