CIB quizzes Binod Chaudhary over Bansbari land scam

Nepal: The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Thursday interrogated industrialist and Nepali Congress lawmaker Binod Chaudhary over his alleged involvement in the Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory land scam.

 

Binod Chaudhary

The bureau, which has been investigating the land scam for the past few months, had summoned Chaudhary, the country’s only Forbes-listed billionaire, for a statement. It has already recorded the statement of his siblings, Arun and Basant. On Wednesday, the bureau had written to Speaker Devraj Ghimire informing him that it was investigating the lawmaker’s involvement in the land scam.

 

Binod recorded his statement before the investigating agency in the presence of representatives from the Kathmandu District Attorney Office.

 

“We have recorded his [Binod’s] statement,” Superintendent of Police Hobindra Bogati, spokesman at the bureau, told the Post. “The investigation into the land scam is ongoing. We will lodge a case at the earliest.”

 

The police are investigating the Chaudhary brothers based on complaints filed by the ward 3 office of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and Nawaraj Sharma, among others.

 

They are accused of illegally converting 10 ropani (0.5 hectares) of public land belonging to the Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory into private property.

 

Speaking to the media after recording his statement, Binod claimed that the government action against him was driven by political vendetta. He even warned the government to be mindful of the message it sends to Nepali youths, entrepreneurs, employers and taxpayers by interrogating a reputed industrialist like him.

 

“I voiced my opinion in Parliament as soon as an investigation was launched against me,” he said. “I was called to record my statement and I complied with the request, fulfilling my duty as a responsible citizen and a politician.”

 

Terming the allegations against him ‘a political stunt’, the industrialist argued that he doesn’t have to provide a certificate of his character.

 

He said he was sad over the unnecessary ‘politicisation’ of a new idea aimed at creating ‘an excellent model of public-private partnership, particularly concerning land that had not been sold, even at a price as low as a penny’, over four decades ago.

 

Last month, the police had arrested his younger brother Arun, who is the chairman and managing director of CG Holdings, and Ajit Narayan Singh Thapa, the then executive chairman of the shoe factory, as well as Sanjay Thakur, chairman of CG Chandbagh School, which occupies the disputed land.

 

The trio, however, were released on February 7 following a court order. The Kathmandu District Court on February 4 had directed the authorities to release them on a personal guarantee, within two days, if the investigation could not be completed within the extended period. Arun was released on a personal guarantee of his son, Karan.

 

The order by the district court judge Yagya Prasad Acharya courted controversy, and a week later, he was transferred to Mugu District Court as a punishment.

 

The school owned by Chaudhary Group is built on the same property where the government-owned Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory once stood. The land was transferred to Chaudhary Group’s Champion Shoe Factory and later to the CG Chandbagh School.

 

The government-owned factory was established as a public enterprise with support of the Chinese government on June 2, 1965. But, in 1992, the factory, which was operating at a loss for years, was sold to a private company, citing regular losses it was incurring.

 

When the factory was about to close, the complaint paper says, the 10-ropani plot of land was illegally transferred to Champion Shoe Factory, which was owned by the Chaudhary family. Later, the Chaudhary family built the CG Chandbagh School on the same property.

 

After a Nepali-language news website Ukaalo.com published a series of investigative reports on the land scam some 15 months ago, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority started an investigation, but it was soon shelved, apparently under political pressure. Then the bureau took over, according to police officials.

 

The Bansbari Shoe Factory was established with Chinese financial and technical assistance. After the company struggled to make profit, out of its 83 ropani (4.22 hectares), the factory decided to sell 10 ropani.

 

According to the Ukaalo report, a meeting of the shoe factory on August 29, 1986 decided to sell the 10 ropani of land at Rs250,000 per ropani to the Champion Footwear Limited owned by the Chaudhary Group.

 

Chaudhary Group is today the largest conglomerate in Nepal.

 

While registering Champion Footwear at the Office of the Company Registrar, the owners of the company were named as Binod Chaudhary, Arun Chaudhary, Basant Chaudhary, their father Lunkaran Das Chaudhary, their mother Ganga Devi Chaudhary, Mahesh Kumar Agrawal, and Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory, according to records at the office.

 

The objective of selling the land was to make up for the loss incurred by Bansbari Leather and Shoe Factory, but the factory never got cash, the Ukaalo investigation report says. Instead, the shoe factory was given 1,500 shares of Champion Footwear Limited at Rs1,000 a share.

 

The country’s business community had come in defence of Arun following his arrest last month.

 

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries, the umbrella body of the Nepali private sector, had asked the government not to arrest businessmen without proper investigation and substantial evidence.