Bansbari land case: Three held including businessman Arun Chaudhary

KATHMANDU: Three people have been arrested in connection with the Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory land dispute.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has detained Arun Chaudhary, a member of the Chaudhary Group and managing director of CG Holding, Ajit Narayan Singh Thapa, then Chair of the Board of Directors of Leather Shoe Factory, and Sanjay Thakur of Amrapali Construction.

The police stated they were arrested on Thursday afternoon to investigate the land matter involving the Bansbari leather and shoe factory.

Arrested Arun is the brother of Nepali Congress MP Binod Chaudhary, the chairman of the Chaudhary Group (CG), the country’s largest industrial and business conglomerate. Chaudhary has been transported to the District Attorney’s Office.

Ajit Narayan is the President’s political advisor and the uncle of Congress Leader Sunil Thapa. After his uncle’s arrest, he went to the CIB.

According to the decision of the then-board of directors, led by Thapa, Arun Chaudhary of Chaudhary Group was able to obtain 10 ropani land in his name.

The Abuse of Authority probe Commission began its probe 15 months ago. However, as the authority’s inquiry was stalled, the CIB launched its own investigation into the situation.

What is the case?

Bansbari leather and shoe factory, which was established in 2020 with the support of the Chinese government, was destroyed within two decades.

It was decided to sell 10 plantations out of 83 plantations of the factory due to continuous losses. Following that, on Bhadra 13, 2043, the committee of Banskot Chhap and Shoe Factory decided to sell 6 ropanies of land to Champion Footwear Limited for a total of 1.5 million rupees, with a bidding price of 250,000 rupees per ropani.

It was claimed that the loss incurred by the factory would be compensated by selling the land. But when the land was sold, the factory got not money, but 1,500 shares of Champion Footwear Limited at the rate of 1,000 rupees per share.

The price at which Champion Footwear acquired the land from Bansbari was much lower than the assessment made by the government itself. On April 5, 1992 (Chait 23rd, 2048), the value of the 83 ropani land owned by Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory Limited in the evaluation conducted by the government through an independent appraiser is mentioned to be Rs 74,442,000 at that time. According to this price, the value of Pratiropani land is 8 lakh 49 thousand rupees. But the champion got 10 plants of bamboo plantation by giving a share of 25 lakh rupees.

But within three years after acquiring the land, Champion Footwear stopped producing shoes. After that, it was revealed that even the shares in the name of the government were converted into private property by the Chaudhary group by transferring their names to 10 rupees of government land.