Kathmandu, October 21: The government has decided to freeze all the assets of the vice-chair of the Nepali Congress and former deputy prime minister Bijay Kumar Gachhedar.
The Department of Money Laundering Investigation made such a decision for carrying out the necessary investigation on his involvement in the Lalita Niwas land scam . According to reports, every property of Gachhedar, including the lands in Kathmandu, Sunsari and Morang, was frozen by the department. Prior to this, it had also frozen the assets of former Chief Commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Deep Basnyat involved in the same scam.
The department is engaged in probing the sources of the assets owned by all those indicted for illicitly grabbing the 113 ropanis 13 annas of land at Lalita Niwas in Baluwatar. The property is owned by the state.
On February 5, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority files cases against a total of 175 individuals, including Gachhedar and Basnyat, accusing them of such offense.
Among these individuals are also high-profile people like two former land reforms ministers- Dambar Shrestha and Chandra Dev Joshi- and three former government secretaries.
