The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has concluded that Min Bahadur Gurung, the owner of Bhatbhateni Supermarket, the mastermind behind the Lalita Niwas land scam.
Police on August 29 arrested Gurung, for his alleged involvement in the embezzlement case of 113 ropanis of land belonging to Lalita Niwas.
Entrepreneurs have been raising voices that it is wrong to arrest Gurung, who is running a multi-billion business, and that he will not go anywhere.
The CIB, on the Lalita Niwas land case, has already submitted a file report to the prosecutor’s office.
In the report, the CIB has concluded that defendant Gurung embezzled the Lalita Niwas land in cahoots with Shobhakanta Dhakal, Kumar Regmi, Bijendra Joshi, the other defendants.
“Gurung is found involved in the embezzlement of Lalita Niwas land in cahoots with the government officials among others, thereby amassing millions of rupees,” reads the report.
According to the report, the Bhatbhateni Development Company Pvt. Ltd., of which the defendant Min Bahadur is the chairman, as the, has received a land plot of 133.14 square meters of plot number 211 and 591.
"The defendant has committed a crime by registering the government land in the name of an individual, in accordance with the Chapter 1 and 2 of the National Civil (Code) Act, 2017.”
Similarly, the CIB has recommended to pay the penalty for the offense in accordance with Chapter 7 and 9.
Earlier, Umbrella organizations including the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), and Nepal Chamber of Commerce had jointly raised their voices against the arrest of Gurung even though he was made the main accused in the land case.
“The private sector has been terrorized by the government’s act to detain an entrepreneur without being convicted by the court. The state should listen to the voices of accused entrepreneurs before putting them in the custody,” they had said.
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