KATHMANDU, April 11 -- Various banks and financial institutions issued billions of rupees in loans with land at Lalita Niwas as collateral, it has emerged. Lalita Niwas had already been acquired by the government with due compensation for the previous owners.

New facts have emerged showing that nearly a dozen banks and financial institutions issued billions in loans and the collateral was land that had passed illegally back into the hands of Rukma Shumsher Rana and others in 2060 BS and was subsequently sold onwards by them.

Sources at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, which are currently conducting investigations into the matter, said Nepal Investme...