KATHMANDU: The Special Court has convicted Maoist leader Gagan Puri, also known as Rewataraj Puri, in a corruption case involving the illegal registration of public land in the names of private individuals in Jhapa.
The court found Puri guilty alongside former officials of the Survey and Land Revenue Offices, landowners, and middlemen, a total of nine individuals.
Puri has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs 2 million. The verdict also orders the confiscation of approximately 800 ropanis of land that had been unlawfully transferred to private ownership.
The case relates to public land located north of the confluence of the Ratua and Dipini rivers in Damak Municipality Wards 13 and 14. After the rivers changed course, a sandbank, locally known as “Jhapa’s Baluwatar”, emerged. Puri and his associates managed to have this land registered under private names through collusion with government officials.
The bench of Special Court Chairperson Tek Narayan Kunwar and members Murari Babu Shrestha and Ritendra Thapa delivered the ruling.
Those convicted alongside Puri include then-Survey Officers Shashikant Jha and Ramdev Mandal; surveyors Sitaram Yadav, Bindeshwar Panjiyar, Bishnudev Yadav, Ramkumar Das, Ganesh Kumar Dhimal; Amin Lalit Kumar Mandal; and Naib Subba Rudra Prasad Shrestha.
This is Puri’s second corruption conviction. In February 2024, he was found guilty in a money laundering case and was ordered to pay a fine of Rs 40.33 million, along with his wife, Keshawati “Seema” Puri.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed the land grab case, accusing Puri and others of conspiring to transfer government-owned property into private hands, causing direct loss to the state.
With this latest verdict, legal experts say Puri faces mounting legal troubles and that his political career is effectively over.
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