The police have brought Dipesh Pun, secretary of Supreme Cooperative of Butwal Kumar Ramtel and IT chief Bhawishwar Aryal to Butwal—who have been arrested on charge of misappropriating over Rs 1 billion—to Butwal and initiated investigation.
Chairman of the cooperative Om Prakash Gurung and branch manager of Bhairahawa Durga Chapagai Pandey were arrested on February 16.
Ramtel and Aryal, who were arrested after that, were brought to Butwal five days back while son of former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun, who was arrested from Kathmandu on Friday, was brought to Butwal Friday night, according to chief of Area Police Office, Butwal DSP Bijay Raj Pandit.
A complaint has been lodged against founding chairman and patron of Supreme Cooperative GB (Gitendra) Rai, who has been absconding since the scam was made public, accusing him of misappropriating over Rs 1.078 billion of 10,391 depositors.
Gorkha Media Company that owned Galaxy 4K has also been found to have illegally taken loan of Rs 105 million from Supreme Cooperative Butwal.
Gorkha Media, which had Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane as shareholder and managing director (MD), has been found to have taken loan of Rs 105 million from Supreme Cooperative, Rs 120 million from Sahara Cooperative of Chitwan and Rs 100 million from Suryadarshan Cooperative of Pokhara.
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.
Promoter of Gorkha Media GB (Gitendra) Rai was also chairman of Supreme Cooperative. He made Om Prakash Gurung chairman only two years back and remained patron. GB Rai had also opened Suryodaya Cooperative.
Gorkha had borrowed a total of Rs 105 million from Supreme Cooperative including loans taken at different times with Gorkha last taking a loan of Rs 3 million on May 18, 2022.
GB Rai has taken loan of over Rs 600 million from Supreme Cooperative in the name of different companies owned by him including Gorkha Media, Nature Herbo, Nature Nest Company, and GB Group Company among others, according to current Chairman Gurung.
Gurung has claimed that he was vice-chairman at the time and Rai borrowed from the cooperative in connivance with the then administrator Sagar KC. Gurung has added that he knew only later that Rai took loans from the cooperative without completing the necessary paper works.
Gurung has revealed that he was affiliated to Maitri Saving and Credit Cooperative of Deepnagar Butwal and merged the cooperative to form Supreme Ccooperative on proposal of Rai to expand the institution.
Rai became chairman of Supreme, Gurung, vice-chairman and son of former vice-president Nanda Kishor Pun, Dipesh Pun, secretary.
Rai seems to have channeled money from Supreme Cooperative to his different companies when he was chairman before leaving the post for Gurung and remaining as patron even as complaints about abuse of money from cooperatives started to surface.
