KATHMANDU: The Land Revenue Office, Kavre, has encumbered the property pertaining to CG Holdings Company, which is situated in Khopasi, Panauti Municipality-9. Ram Bahadur Shahi, the Chief of the Land Revenue Office, confirmed that the 115 ropani, 10 aana, and 2 paisa (a total of 633,333.62 square feet) of CG Holdings’ land parcel was placed under fiscal restriction on Friday.

“The transaction demonstrates characteristics of illegality. We have impounded this property to prevent any subsequent sale or transfer,” Shahi stated to Nepal News.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had sent a letter to the Land Revenue Office, Kavre, on Thursday to freeze the land. According to Shahi, the land was frozen immediately upon receiving the letter on Friday. “The letter was received today, and we immediately froze the land,” Shahi said.

The CIAA is investigating the case involving the sale of land exceeding the permissible limit by Trishakti Cement. According to the CIAA, Trishakti Cement appears to have sold land exceeding the permissible limit to industrialist Binod Chaudhary. “We are preparing to take statements from those who appear to be involved in this case,” said a high-ranking CIAA official. “We are taking the statement of the main person involved in the purchase.”

Trishakti Cement had purchased 214 ropani of land in Khopasi, Panauti Municipality-9, and Balthali in Ward 11 between 1990 and 1993. Of that, Trishakti sold 115 ropani (629740 square feet) of land in Khopasi to industrialist Chaudhary.

The decision to release and sell Trishakti’s land was made by the Cabinet on August 6, 1998. At that time, Girija Prasad Koirala was the Prime Minister, and Chiranjeevi Wagle was the Minister of Land Reform and Management.

The Cabinet had granted permission to sell the Khopasi land under the condition that Trishakti would purchase and sell land elsewhere within two years. However, Trishakti did not buy land elsewhere within two years. Instead, it was transferred solely in Chaudhary’s name on December 8, 2000. At that time, Siddharaj Ojha was the then Minister of State for Land Reform.

On the very day the land was transferred, Chaudhary also transferred the land in the names of himself, his brother Arun Chaudhary, and Chandbagh School. CG Holdings is currently building housing on the land purchased by Chaudhary. CG Holdings started building housing on that land from the fiscal year 2021/22. There is a plan to build 220 houses there. Currently, 91 houses have been built on that land. 31 houses have been booked.

According to the CIAA official, an allegation was filed last June claiming that Trishakti sold the land in the same manner as the Patanjali Yog Peeth case. In the Patanjali case, the CIAA had filed a lawsuit against 93 people, including former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The CIAA stated that after a preliminary study of the application, the case has now been taken for detailed investigation. After the complaint was filed, the CIAA wrote a letter to the Land Revenue Office, Kavre, requesting documents related to the purchase and sale of the land. “After the CIAA requested the file, we sent it on September 28. The records show that the industrial land was sold directly to an individual,” says Land Revenue Chief Shahi. “An individual is not allowed to buy land exceeding the permissible limit, and land purchased in the name of an industry is not allowed to be sold to an individual in that way.”

According to the eighth amendment of the Land Act 1964, enacted in 2019, a company can keep land exceeding the permissible limit with approval for limited purposes, such as an industry. Industries, establishments, companies, projects, educational institutions, or any other institution that has acquired land exceeding the permissible limit can only use it for the purpose for which it was acquired.

The Act states that such land cannot be sold, distributed, or transferred in any way, or exchanged by the concerned industry, establishment, company, project, educational institution, or any institution to anyone. The Act provides that the land will be confiscated by the government if it is bought and sold illegally.

The official stated that the preliminary investigation revealed the land was sold at a rate of Rs 800,000 per ropani (5476 square feet). He stated that the CIAA is investigating all parties involved in the purchase and sale. “There is a provision to recover the amount even from the family members of the decision-maker if the decision-maker has died, so the absence of the decision-maker does not seem to affect the investigation,” the official said.

The 98 ropani (536648 square feet) of Trishakti’s land in Balthali has not been sold yet. The decision to release that land was a ministerial decision in 2000 and 2009. Ojha, the Minister of State for Land Reform in 2010, and Dambar Shrestha, the Minister of Land Reform in the fiscal year 2009/10, had made a ministerial decision to release and sell that land as well.

However, since the Land Revenue Office did not process those decisions, the Balthali land has not been sold. Trishakti has also illegally leased the frozen land. Trishakti leased the land to Kamala Devi Khanij Udyog for 20 years in the fiscal year 2018/19. Kamala Devi is currently excavating limestone from that mine.

Nepal News published an exclusive news story about Trishakti Cement selling land exceeding the permissible limit to industrialist Binod Chaudhary on November 11. Click here to read the related news.