Kathmandu, December 27
Deep Basnyat, a former chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, has gone incommunicado for the past few days as the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police has expedited its probe into the notorious Baluwatar/Lalita Niwas land scam.
Officials in the CIB who have been following Basnyat says he has gone to India on the pretext of a health checkup. He is out of contact since the CIB arrested Ram Kumar Subedi, one of the accused of the scam that has been the biggest corruption case of the country in the past decade, last week.
The source says the CIB has already received a warrant to arrest Basnyat, who has been accused of corruption in connection with the case.
On December 14, 2020, the Special Court had sent Basnyat to judicial custody until the final verdict on one of the biggest corruption cases of current times. The Supreme Court, however, released him on bail on May 7, 2021.
Basnyat was one among 175 people the commission indicted for embezzlement while transferring various plots of land at Baluwatar of Kathmandu into individuals’ names. He was drawn to the case for his role as the secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure before the CIAA job.
