The Patan High Court has ordered that businessman Shanker Agrawal be kept in custody while the case against him proceeds.
A bench of Judges Arjun Prasad Koirala and Kavi Prasad Neupane issued the order on Thursday.
The court ordered Agrawal’s detention, stating that documents attached to the case file, a Nepal Rastra Bank report, and the evidence available so far indicated his involvement in the alleged banking offense.
“Based on the special on-site inspection report prepared by Nepal Rastra Bank regarding the use of loans taken by Jagdamba Steels Limited from Nepal Investment Bank, the statements given by co-defendants Sulav Agrawal and Deepak Bhatta before authorized officers, and other evidence currently available, it appears that the defendant also had a role in acts contrary to Section 6 of the Banking Offense and Punishment Act, 2007,” the order states.
The order further says that documents in the case file indicate that family members had been designated to operate Jagdamba Steels’ accounts and that, as a family member, Agrawal had helped divert the loans for purposes other than those for which they had been obtained.
“Since the documents attached to the case file indicate that the defendant, as a family member, helped misuse the loans by using them for purposes other than those for which they had been obtained from the financial institution, the defendant should be remanded in custody for the purpose of trial, subject to the final determination after the evidence is examined,” the order states. The court ordered that he be sent to Nakkhu Prison in Lalitpur under Section 67 of the National Criminal Procedure Code, 2017.
Jagdamba Steels Limited had obtained working capital and short-term loans from a consortium of banks led by Nepal Investment Bank (now Nepal Investment Mega Bank, NIMB). However, a financial transaction monitoring and special on-site inspection report by Nepal Rastra Bank showed that the loans had been misused in a planned manner instead of being used for their stated purpose, according to the court order.
The order states that although the loan taken by Jagdamba Steels was allegedly used to purchase land belonging to co-defendant Deepak Bhatta, the land purchase and sale transaction does not appear to have been completed.
Instead, the court said, the loan was misused by transferring funds from the defendant’s account through accounts at Siddhartha Bank and Kumari Bank and investing in shares of Infinity Holdings Pvt Ltd, which was solely owned by co-accused Bhatta.
