Three trade unions -- Nepal National Employees Organization, Nepal Civil Servants Unions and Nepal Public Service Employees Organization -- even issued a warning to the local administration to either release the LROs or face similar protests.[break]
Presidents of these employee unions handed over a memorandum to this effect to Chief District Officer Shambhu Koirala on Friday. Saying that the fake land ownership certificates also had the signatures of officials of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), they demanded the police to probe bank officials as well.
District Police Office (DPO) had detained seven LROs on Thursday, suspecting their involvement in making fake land ownership documents that enabled one Santosh Paudel to swindle Rs 70 million from nine BFIs in Pokhara by pledging the same plots of land as collateral.
Those detained were Niru Adhikari, Durga GC, Ananta Subedi, Upendra Mehata, Shanti Gautam, Udaya Kunwar and Pramesh Aryal.
Four of the seven detained officials were released on the same day after carrying out preliminary interrogation. GC, Gautam, Kunwar and Aryal released on Friday have been asked to be present at the DPO at 10 am on Sunday.
"Three LROs -- Adhikari, Subedi and Mehata -- have been kept in police custody for further interrogations," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Tul Bahadur Karki.
Paudel, who was arrested in the same case early this week, in his statement to the police, admitted that he had bribed LROs to produce fake certificates.
In his statement, Paudel said that he would approach the LROs during rush hours and bribe them to get his work done, according to DSP Karki. Interestingly, Paudel said such bribes were never more than Rs 500 at a time.
"I used to influence junior officials and get my work done by providing them Rs 200 to Rs 400," Karki quoted Paudel as saying.
Chief of DPO, Superintendent of Police Yadav Raj Khanal, expressed surprise over the strike by LROs and warnings issued by the trade unions. "Land revenue officials have committed a grave crime. Still, the unions are backing them up," Khanal told Republica, adding that Unions´ action will not affect the police investigation.
President of Nepal Public Service Employees Organization Rishi Raj Lamichhane claimed that the DPO took one-sided action against the LROs. "Instead of calling them to come to the office for interrogation, it is treating them like criminals," he said. Lamichhane even defended the detained LROs, saying that they did not prepare fake documents but were deceived by the swindlers.
A preliminary report prepared by DPO says that Paudel swindled around Rs 21 million from four institutions - Muktinath Development Bank, Everest Bank, Garima Development Bank and Fewa Finance. The report also indicates that the defrauded amount may rise once a thorough investigation is done at other five banks as well.
Paudel allegedly influenced LROs to prepare fake ownership documents of lands that were already pledged as collateral with other banks. On the basis of those fake documents, Paudel re-pawned the same plots to get new loans.
Officials said Paudel had numerous aides in the racket but except for Bishwokarma and Guvaju no one has been identified so far.
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