KATHMANDU: Employees at Bhaktapur District Land Revenue Office today returned to work after the District Administration Office warned it would take departmental action against striking staffers. The staff had disrupted daily work at the office since Monday after police arrested four officers for allegedly working with a forgery racket to transfer land ownership by using fake documents. The employees had been demanding that those arrested be released unconditionally. Daily business at the office was affected due to the protest, prompting CDO Jitendra Bahadur Bhandari to issue a warning against the agitators. Gazetted officers Subodh Khanal and Umakanta Poudel, and non-gazetted officers Ramhari Neupane and Karna Bahadur Bista were held for further investigation into the corruption and forgery case. Three other employees are said to be at large. An official said the absconding employees were on leave. The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police had busted the ‘biggest- ever’ land ownership certificate forgery racket on August 28. Police had made 15 arrests over a period of two week in connection with the group. During interrogation, they implicated employees of Bhaktapur land revenue office stating that they had managed to transfer the ownership of a three-ropani and six-ana land in Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur to a fake owner by forging the citizenship certificate of the rightful owner, Biramananda Agrawal (59) of Indra Chowk. “They submitted the forged citizenship certificate to District Land Revenue Office and replaced Agrawal’s photo with that of a fake owner on the register. The racket was preparing to sell the land belonging to Agrawal for Rs 45 million when CIB caught them red-handed,” a police investigator said. CIB has handed over responsibility of investigation to Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur.
Source:thehimalayantimes