Nepal's Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on Sunday filed cases against 13 former officials of land reform, land revenue and local government offices of Kapilavastu at the Special Court for allegedly registering 32.2 bighas of land in the name of an Indian national on the basis of fake documents.

The plot, located at the erstwhile Sanai Village Development Committee, was supposed to come under the ownership of the government as its original owner had more land than the threshold allowed by the law. So, the land’s transaction had also been halted, according to the commission.

But, the land was registered in the name of Indian citizen Anup Mehra who presented his fake credentials as Nepali national Anup Kumar Khatri. Mehra then sold the land to different Nepali families.

Officials suspect that the crime took place with collusion between the then chief land revenue officer of Kapilvastu Tikram Gyawali, land reform officer Ishwor Prakash Kalwar and land revenue officer Manohar Prasad Panthi among others.

Along with them, non-gazetted staffers Buddhi Sagar Tiwari, Ramesh Man Shrestha, Village Development Committee secretaries Nanda Lal Das, Buddhi Sagar Subedi and Nandalal Kumhal Kohar, computer operator Suwas Khadka, low-ranked staffers Netra Bahadur Chaudhary, Amrit Kumar Kammu Magar and Khagendra Parajuli and a local from Gerami Rural Municipality Rabi Kumar Khatri have been made defendants in this case.

They have been charged with causing a loss of Rs 50.54 million to the government for registering land in the name of an Indian national based on fake documents.

According to the commission, the land at first was owned by one Prem Sharan Khatri. Mehra pretended to be Prem Sharan’s heir to get the land ownership transferred and then sold it to 12 Nepalis.
 
According to the commission, although the 12 people had no role in corruption, they have also been made defendants in the case to seize the land they bought.

https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/07/12/corruption-watchdog-files-cases-against-13-former-officials-for-registering-land-in-indian-national-s-name