Rautahat, April 5 -- Arjun Phuyal, 61, of Chandrapur Municipality-4, used to run a grocery shop at Chandranigahapur Chowk. The shop was always crowded with customers, and his income was steady. While everything was going well, he befriended a neighbouring cloth merchant, Rambabu Sah Kalwar. Their friendship flourished, and the two agreed to purchase land together.

In 2009, Phuyal bought 10.5 kattha (0.359 hectares) of land in Chandrapur-5 by borrowing Rs2 million from Kalwar and adding Rs1 million of his own investment.

One plot was kept in Phuyal's name, while the remaining two were registered under Kalwar's name. Later, by mutual agreement, plots numbered 2027 and 1028 were also transferred to Kalwar. As time passed, Kalwar, intending...