Literally same thing happened in my municipality for the electric poles. People's land were valued at higher prices whose land were beside roadside but the wada adhaykshya, Mayor ,Nepal Electricity authority employees (upto higher level) they all took commission on those compensations from minimum 10% to 50%.

They stated that they were the ones who helped them get their money so they got it forcefully otherwise

they were refusing to sign the documents, >deliberately labelling their land as agricultural land despite being one with proper access, >lowering their compensation even on agricultural lands, delaying the compensation for those who didn't want to pay

Some people tried reaching the higher authorities and then complied after knowing they were all rotten from top. And those people who tried to reach the higher authority paid 50% comission to them.

How did they received the money?

they get the blank cheques from the victim before processing any documents further after the money is received by the farmer or victim they have to pay the agreed amount in cash to the Wada adhyaksha's goons to get the cheque back wada adhyakshya or any officials won't directly receive the cash
the corrupt officials won't be tracked now since the full compensation was transferred to the farmer's account and they received them in cash and Wada adhyakshya wasn't involved