The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police has busted a racket long involved in counterfeiting land ownership certificates registered in rightful persons’ names and keeping them as collateral in banks to secure a loan.They were arrested from separate places in Kathmandu over three days.

According to the CIB, it is the biggest forgery racket Nepal Police have ever unearthed.

The racketeers have been identified as Pushpa Raj Shah of Kavre, Rajan Thami of Dolakha, Gokarna Prasad Dhungana of Chitwan, Sishir Ranjitkar of Jhochhen, Jeet Bahadur Lama alias Ashok Lama of Lalitpur, Pushpa Raj Sunuwar alias Kalsang Sherpa of Ramechhap and Shiva Adhikari alias Mohan Adhikari of Dhalku.CIB Director DIG Upendra Kant Aryal said their modus operandi was counterfeiting ownership certificates of persons owning the land in one district but living in another district.

According to CIB, they used to make counterfeit certificates based on their photocopies, register the land in other districts by procuring original certificate from Land Revenue Office.

In one case, the racket had taken a loan of Rs 19 million from Putalisadakbased Nepal Investment Bank by forging land certificate of Hetauda-based Kishor Kumar Bista and Shailendra Kumar Bista.

The police have recovered Rs 2,92,000, land maps of various districts, land ownership certificates, photos of different people, blank land and citizenship certificates, seals of various government offices, cheque books of Everest Bank, Kumari Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Citizen Bank and ATM cards from them.

source: The Himalayan Times, 8 September 2011