Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane has said that he should be punished if the loan taken by Galaxy 4K Television when he was its managing director (MD) and shareholder were illegal.
Clause 50 of the Cooperatives Act 2017 stipulates that a cooperative can accept deposit only from its members, and lend to only its members. Similarly, the Company Directive 2015 also prohibits a private company from acquiring shares of a cooperative and stipulates that even the shares acquired before the directive came into force be transferred to others within a year. It also prohibits a company from borrowing from a cooperative.
But Gorkha Media Company that owned Galaxy 4K has been found to have illegally taken loan of Rs 100 million from Suryadarshan Cooperative of Pokhara. The cooperative was opened by promoter of Gorkha Media GB (Gitendra) Rai. Lamichhane was shareholder and MD of Gorkha Media.
Talking to Setopati on Tuesday Lamichhane has said that he should be punished if the loan taken by Galaxy 4K Television when he was its MD and shareholder were illegal.
“I had sweat equity (equity given in return for physical and mental labor invested on a company). I have said this on television. I did not invest. I got the shares for my work,” Lamichhane has stated. “I still don’t know whether a cooperative can invest in media company or not and whether such investment made is illegal or not. I should be liable for punishment for the reason that I still don’t know," he has stated acknowledging that ignorance of the law is no excuse.
“As I went by converting my goodwill into shares, who is free from moral and legal obligations of that time? If the person who invested in your media company brought illegal investment from elsewhere, you cannot get away saying I didn’t know even when you have quit that media. Therefore, I also cannot.”
When asked about how the shareholders discussed about obtaining loans for Gorkha Media, he has claimed that he doesn’t recall that, and added that he also does not know if there are any records about that stressing that he did not show interest about that as he was not an investor and just worked as a journalist.
When reminded that he should have tried to find out whether the loan taken by the company, where he was shareholder and MD, was legal or not, he has repeated his ignorance.
“I still don’t know where a cooperative can invest or where it cannot. I was not from that cooperative, and other partner GB Rai did the work of bringing money from there. He is liable for punishment if a cooperative cannot invest. I should be immediately locked up if you were to say a television company cannot take loan from a cooperative and ask me why I took.”
When reminded that Company Directive 2015 also prohibits a private company from acquiring shares of or taking loan from a cooperative he has argued, “Alright! You would find out that I am the worst person in this world if you dig such things up. The thing is angle of your investigation.”
He has countered asking why the cooperative allowed investment in the media company when again reminded about the legal provisions governing the cooperatives and companies in Nepal. “You’re right,” he has quipped when Setopati pointed that the cooperative gave loan to Gorkha Media because promoter of the company GB Rai also operated the cooperative, and another cooperative would have refused to lend to the media company.
