Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President and former home minister Rabi Lamichhane has claimed that he is not the Rabi Lamichhane who borrowed from Suryadarshan and Supreme cooperatives.
Lamicchane said so while answering 50 questions asked by the parliamentary inquiry committee formed to investigate misuse of funds in cooperatives at the Federal Parliament Secretariat in the Singha Durbar for six hours from 4:30 Friday afternoon.
"I am not the Rabi Lamichhane who took loans from Suryadarshan Cooperative of Pokhara and and Supreme Cooperative of Butwal. My citizenship, properties or documents have not been used. I do not know if GB Rai made fake loans," member of the committee lawmaker Ishwari Neupane quoted him as saying.
He has also claimed that he knew that Gorkha Media Network Chairman GB Rai was involved in so many cooperatives only months after he quit the company and became lawmaker winning election. "I knew that he had companies like Nature Herbs. I only knew that GB who owned such big companies and immense wealth could bring money from anywhere," Neupane quoted Lamichhane as adding.
She has revealed that he answered 'I don't know' to most of the questions posed to him. "He just said that he went to Gorkha Media Network only to oversee operation with monthly salary of Rs 500,000 and other perks and benefits. He claimed that GB Rai gave him money and sent the same money to the account of Gorkha Media Network for shares as there is no provision of sweat share in the law," Neupane said.
When asked about documents he submitted to the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) while getting 15 percent of shares of Galaxy 4K Television owned by Gorkha Media and later transferring it he responded that the documents were made in a way that it is done in practice. "I didn't put money while getting shares nor did I get anything while quitting it," Neupane quoted him as stating.
During a press conference Lamichhane held on January 22 to clear his name in the scam he had implied that the OCR was duped while transferring 15 percent of shares of Galaxy 4K Television owned by him to GB Rai.
Ownership of the shares were transferred by submitting a voucher proving transfer of Rs 18 million by Rai to Lamichhane's bank account. But Lamichhane in the press conference claimed that the amount was not deposited in his bank account after a check slip showing him to have taken Rs 18 million from Rai while quitting Galaxy 4k was published.
Lamichhane also produced a letter issued by Global IME Bank to support his claims that the amount was not deposited into his account. That letter also establishes that the OCR was duped while transferring ownership of the shares of Galaxy.
An officer with the OCR told Setopati that ownership of shares can be transferred only with the consent of seller, and submission of a bank voucher if the shares traded are worth over Rs 1 million.
But Lamichhane did not reveal whether he was aware about issue of a check with insufficient fund during transfer of shares, and he was solely focused on claiming that the amount was not deposited into his bank account during the press conference.
