The then Minister Gupta and the middleman Lama were sent by the Authority for statement and voice test
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
It has been confirmed by the forensics laboratory that the audio of the 'bribery deal' between the then federal affairs and general administration minister Rajkumar Gupta, middleman Sujan Lama and the president of the Civil Liberation Party and the minister of land management Ranjita Shrestha to grab 134 ropani of land in the 'lychee garden' area of Pokhara Batulechaur in Kaski.
As the audio was proved to be fake, the authority sent former minister Gupta and middleman Lama to the office on Tuesday for statement and voice test. Although involved in the case, Land Management Minister Balram Adhikari, former minister Shrestha and former Land Management Secretary Arjun Pokharel are still out of the investigation.
"It seems that organized gangs have taken public officials and employees in their hands to steal land, and the context and subject mentioned in the audio also confirm it," says an investigation officer of the authority, "Two of them have been called for a statement, the rest will be revealed during the investigation." He said that the audio that was made public is confirmed, but the voice is going to be double-checked.
Authority spokesperson Rajendra Kumar Paudel said that he could not talk about matters that are under investigation. "This matter is under investigation," he said, "can't say anything else." Gupta resigned on June 31 after the audio of the 'bribery deal' of the plan to grab the land through Kaski's property and land commission officials by getting the money from the middleman was made public. Gupta, who initially claimed that there was no truth in the allegations, was forced to resign after increasing demands for action against him. In the same case, Land Management Minister Adhikari, who was accused of receiving money from a middleman through his son Manoj Adhikari, held a press conference and insisted that he would not resign and that the allegations were not true.
The authority has not called him in a statement for investigation. Even in the audio of 'Bribery Deal', Chairman of Civil Liberties and Minister of Land Management Shrestha and former Secretary Pokharel are also involved in the land case of Pokhara. They are also not called by the authority for questioning.
134 ropani of Batulechaur land in the name of land mafia and middlemen in the plan of taking the land in the name of different people, two separate audios were released, which were connected to Land Management Minister Adhikari, then Federal Affairs and General Administration Minister Gupta, East Land Management Minister Shrestha, former secretary Pokharel and middleman La. On June 10, a complaint was filed with the authority in this case along with the note number and the audio. In the first audio, the dialogue of the then minister Gupta, middleman Lama and former minister Shrestha is heard. In the second audio released with a reference to the 'bribery deal', there is a conversation in which Land Management Minister Adhikari accepted a bribe of Rs 32 lakh and the then Secretary of Land Management Pokharel accepted a bribe of Rs 5 lakh.
In the first audio, you can hear the episode of 2.5 lakh bribe deal between Gupta, Lama and Shrestha to get UML district leader Khem Bahadur Pun appointed to the Kaski Land Commission. According to the investigation officer, the 'bribery deal' took place on 28 December 2081 at Minister Gupta's official residence in Bhainsepati. In the second audio, it is claimed that a bribe of Rs 32 lakh was paid to the Minister of Land Management Adhikari through his son Manoj. In the first audio too, the ministerial officer is heard talking about 'eating money'. In the latest audio, it has been confirmed that the ministerial officer took 32 lakh rupees and the then secretary Pokharel 5 lakh rupees. UML leaders were elected to the House of Representatives from Adhikari Kapil Bastu and Gupta Parsa.
The Minister Adhikari himself has admitted that the middleman Lama met him after the transfer of Lamjung of the then head of the Land Port Office, Kaski. "They came with two or three people saying that Ramchandra Adhikari should be transferred," Minister Adhikari said in the press conference, "I said that the transferred employee should not be transferred." I said that the employees are transferred through the process, they go back and forth.' But the intermediary Lama has claimed that Manoj, the son of a minister who lives in New Zealand, came to Nepal and was involved in the 'setting' of the bribe. Kaski Malpot and Land Commission's plan to bring in trusted people and then the land grabbing game is evident in the audio dialogue of middlemen.
"Yesterday I had a meeting with the Minister of Lands, why didn't you come earlier, I only heard your name Sujan Bhai, you are close to all my brothers, you are like my family, why didn't you come to meet me first, if you had taken the stand of Khem Pun or Khem Pun, the minister told me in front of Anil Marasini that if I had said this to Khem Pun five days ago," Lama said in the audio. Shrestha and Lama met with Gupta to get Khem Pun appointed. However, the official appointed Bain Bahadur Gurung in the Land Commission. On the other hand, a group of middlemen including Prakash Dahal, Aryan Sharma, and others, when Minister Adhikari and his son Manoj reached Pokhara, were influenced by the transfer of money to Ramchandra Adhikari, head of the shipping office.
The official who was the chief administrative officer in Rainaskot municipality of Lamjung was transferred to the chief property officer of Kaski on 20th December 2079 in 'gang collusion'. On 24th November 2080, he was transferred to Baglung Malpot and sent to Chiranjeevi Paudel of Tanahun. The officials who came to Kathmandu soon stopped the transfer by setting up a 'Shakti Kendra'. The then Land Management Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi sent Paudel, who was transferred to Kaski, to Lamjung after the official was arrested. Two months after that, on 24th January 2080, a 'written paper' was made stating that the land of Lychee Bagan was retained in the name of the previous usufructuary and 33 percent of the land would be transferred to the usufructuary and the rest would be taken by an intermediary. One of the signatories of the said paper is also a middleman Lama.
was published, i.e. till 21 December 2081, the officer was working at Kaski Malpot. The officer who stayed in Kaski for 2 years after posting and transfer was transferred to Lamjung Malpot on 24th December 2081 and transferred to Chiranjeevi Poudel who was in Lamjung in Kaski. Officials tried to stop that too. He went to Patan High Court against the transfer. But after the order did not come in his favor, Paudel continued in Kaski.
"When the gang didn't work as they said, they began to run away with ministers, secretaries and other friendly people, and the party to pay against the money eaters, it can be understood that the latest audio is also a part of that," said a government official.
