The police have completed their investigation and prepared a report on the decision to lease Nepal Trust's land at Durbar Marg to Thamserku Trekking Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Yeti Holdings, for 30 years.

The report with a prepared opinion based on the investigation conducted by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has reached him, said Ramhari Sharma Kafle, the head of the District Government Attorney's Office, Kathmandu. 'We are studying the file received from the CIB, we will file a case in court soon,' he said.

The police had arrested former joint secretary Lekh Bahadur Karki on 21 Kartik and former secretary Arjun Karki on 30 Kartik on charges of fraud and criminal breach of trust by entering into a contract agreement that harmed Nepal Trust. Recently, the police had also initiated an investigation by adding the crime of organized crime to this case, but after former secretary Karki filed a writ petition in the court for custodial interrogation, the pressure on the police to complete the investigation soon increased.

The police had also obtained a warrant from the court to arrest Lakpa Sonam Sherpa, the operator of Thamserku Trekking, during the investigation. However, in the meantime, he filed a petition for an injunction against his arrest from the High Court and got an order in his favor. The CIB had also filed a vacate petition against that.

However, after completing the investigation, the CIB has submitted a report recommending that the former joint secretary, former secretary and Sherpa be made defendants. ‘The statement of Thamserku’s operator Sherpa will reveal more nexus in this matter, but since the order was issued that he could not be arrested, there was no way to go further,’ said an investigation officer of the bureau. ‘That is why we have submitted a report with the facts revealed so far.’ According to him, the police have proposed to reduce the amount proposed by Thamserku earlier based on the unlawful application and demand an amount equal to the loss incurred.

The board of directors meeting of Nepal Trust had first approved the plan to lease one ropani and 14 aanas of land on Durbar Marg on 28 Shrawan 2071. About 2 years later, a public notice was issued to lease the land. In that process, Thamserku submitted a proposal of Rs 6.26 billion to lease one ropani 14 aanas of land in front of Narayanhiti Durbar. However, on 24 Falgun 2073, he wrote an application and said that he could not give such a large amount and reduced the old proposal to Rs 1.40 billion.

At that time, the second successful bidder in the technical proposal was Sakhal Steel Industries Pvt. Ltd., which offered Rs 622.458 million and Adrisiya-Lianz JV, which offered Rs 262.28 million. After learning about that, the officials concluded that Thamserku had reduced his proposal.

When the evaluation committee called for an agreement after Thamserku's proposal of Rs 6.26 billion, Thamserku's application reached the legal department of Nepal Trust. However, at that time, the then Law Deputy Secretary of the Law Branch, Purushottam Khatiwada, had submitted a note on 20 Chaitra 2073 stating that the security deposit of Thamserku Trekking had also been forfeited. The CIB has also submitted this letter as evidence.

In the context of such an application, the Law Deputy Secretary Khatiwada, who was in the trust at that time, has mentioned that ‘In the context of such an application, Section 23 (8) of the Public Procurement Act, 2063 states that if any numerical or mathematical error is found in the bid while examining it, the public body can correct such error and if there is a difference in the unit, rate and total amount after correcting the error, the unit rate will be valid and the total amount will have to be corrected according to the same rate.’ However, when the arithmetic check is done on the details of the rate used while submitting the proposal, it is mentioned that the total amount of the financial proposal submitted by Thamserku Trekking Pvt. Ltd. is revised to Rs. 6.45 billion 6.737 million. It is mentioned that the company concerned was also informed about this through a letter regarding the possibility of entering into an agreement.

In this regard, Section 21 (2 B) of the Public Procurement Act states in the commentary submitted by Khatiwada that if the bidder does not accept the correction of the numerical error in the bid, the security of the Pvt. Ltd. is forfeited. The CIB had arrested Joint Secretary Karki on charges of deciding to lease the land at Durbar Marg at a cheap price, contrary to that commentary. During his statement, he had narrated the details of the order given by the then Secretary Arjun Karki.

During the police investigation, it was found that the then Secretary Karki had given an order in the name of Joint Secretary Karki to proceed with the application given by Thamserku. After that, Arjun Karki was also arrested. Even in the Auditor General's report of 2074 BS, it is said that the agreement was made by making a decision at the Joint Secretary level, contrary to the decision made at the Secretary level without any legal basis, and it was not seen as legal. At that time, the Auditor General's report mentioned that 'this matter should be investigated and confirmed'.

According to officials, even the revised proposal submitted after the application was found to be missing seals and signatures. Looking at everything, the officials say that it does not appear that the documents were prepared in a hurry. Complaints had already been filed with the Nepal Police and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority in the Durbar Marg land lease case. The police did not take action on the complaint, while the Authority itself had decided to keep the complaint pending in 2076 BS.

After the police started investigating the Durbar Marg land lease case, Thamserku issued a press release claiming that it had not offered Rs 6 billion for land lease. 'When 30 annas of land can be purchased in the Durbar Marg area even today for Rs 6 billion, can anyone agree to pay Rs 6 billion for the use of 30 annas of land?' Thamserku President Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa had questioned.