Baidya men force landowners sell land in cheap price

eKantipur

BARDIYA, NOV 16 - UCPN (Maoist) activists close to the hard-line faction led by party Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have allegedly forced landowners to sell their "captured land" in cheap price.

The Maoist leaders and activists close to the Baidya faction were found issuing threats to landowners for selling the captured land cheaply so that their kith and kin would buy it. "The Maoist local leaders and their relatives purchased such land in cheap price," a highly placed source said. 

Rajapur area in-charge of Maoist Ganesh Aryal, close to Baidya, and his close aides have been involved in threatening the landowners to sell the seized land.

Aryal had allegedly threatened one Khemraj Shrestha of Manau VDC to sell his two bighas (about 1.3 hectares) of land that the Maoists captured during insurgency for peanuts. The Shrestha family complained that they were forced to sell the land, which costs approximately Rs 1.5 million in the market price, to Aryal's brother Mohan and local businessman Shyam Rimal in just Rs 0.5 million.

Another conflict victim, on condition of anonymity, said that Aryal threatened him to sell his land in cheap rate as well.

The source said that Aryal earned a huge amount of money by fleecing the conflict victims. Aryal purchased a house in Nepalgung and bought land in Kohalpur and other area with the money he earned through such land transaction, the source added.

Aryal, however, refuted the claim. "I bought house and land with the money genuinely earned by my brothers. Those who are accusing me are the reactionary ones," he said.