Nepal’s anti-corruption agency on Tuesday filed corruption charges against former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and 96 others over an alleged land-swap scheme that investigators say cost the government roughly $4.8 million.
The case, brought by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), centers on the illegal sale of land that should have been returned to government ownership, according to a commission statement.
The CIAA also charged Minendra Prasad Rijal who served as minister for federal affairs and parliamentary affairs and coordinator of the cabinet’s social committee at the time of the alleged scheme.
“Summons will be issued for all of them starting tomorrow to appear in court,” Parwati Hitan, the Special Court’s information officer, told OCCRP. She said defendants will have 15 days to appear, and that this can be extended by seven days. None has been detained.
“Once they appear, their statements will be recorded, and after their statements, the hearing process moves forward,” Hitan said. Witness statements and evidence would follow before a bench issues a final decision, she added.
The case centres on land held by Rijal Canning and Company Pvt Ltd. The company received an exemption from land-ceiling limits in 1975. The exemption came on condition that the land be used for fruit processing. The CIAA says it never was.
In 2009, during Madhav Kumar Nepal’s tenure as prime minister, officials allegedly endorsed what the commission calls “false recommendations” that let the company swap nearly three hectares of prime land in Biratnagar for cheaper rural land. The cabinet under Nepal sent the proposal to Rijal’s committee despite what the CIAA describes as a conflict of interest, because Rijal is related to the company’s directors. The committee approved the swap that December.
According to anti-corruption investigators, the company purchased the replacement land for $8,511 while selling the Biratnagar plots for $553,306 million.
The CIAA is seeking prison terms and fines equivalent to the claimed financial loss under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the confiscation of about 40 hectares of land registered to the company across Sunsari and Morang districts. Deceased officials named in the case were included to facilitate the recovery of funds from their estates.
This marks the second corruption indictment against former PM Nepal, who led the government from 2009 to 2011, and currently serves as the co-coordinator of the Nepali Communist Party. He faces a separate ongoing corruption case over alleged irregularities in the land deal awarded to Patanjali Yogpeeth Nepal company, a firm owned by Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
Neither Nepal nor Rijal, currently a senior Nepali Congress leader, could immediately be reached for comment.
Source: OCCRP · 2026-11-03