Former home minister and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane has been arrested in connection to cooperative fraud Friday.
The police will also investigate Lamichhane over charges of organized crime and forgery, according to a Nepal Police source.
A team of the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police led by SP Habindra Bogati arrested Lamichhane from the party office Friday after the Kaski District Court issued an arrest warrant in the name of Lamichhane and 13 others on request of the Kaski Police earlier on the day.
The other persons who had arrest warrant issued in their name include promoters and chief executive officers (CEO) of companies that took loans from Suryadarshan Cooperative of Pokhara illegally, according to the police.
They include Bishal Tamang, Navin Achhami, Ravina Rimal, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Deepak Lama, Ananta Bahadur Rai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Devendra Babu Rai, Om Prakash Gurung, Bir Bahadur Rana Bhat, Deepa Neupane and Kalpana Kumari Shrestha.
Addressing RSP cadres at the party office before being arrested Lamichhane claimed that the leaders of big parties had agreed to arrest him at any cost after formation of the new coalition of Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML.
The Home Ministry on September 22 had instructed the Nepal Police to implement the report prepared by the parliamentary special inquiry committee formed to investigate cooperative fraud. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak had ordered the Nepal Police Headquarters for necessary investigation and action on the basis of the committee report.
The police then arrested former DIG and the then promoter of Gorkha Media Chhabi Lal Joshi from Kathmandu that day itself. Police had earlier recovered software containing data of cooperatives from his house. The parliamentary inquiry committee on cooperative fraud had also questioned him.
Joshi had 50 percent shares in Gorkha Media, which operated Galaxy Television. He had left Gorkha media sometime after Galaxy TV was launched. His shares were also transferred to Gorkha Media Chairman GB Rai after his departure.
The inquiry committee has concluded that the Rs 650 million injected into Gorkha Media was completely from cooperatives and shares of the company were traded on the basis of forged documents.
Pointing that the shares were traded on the basis of forged documents the committee has recommended the government to draw attention of the authorities concerned to determine whether the payment process in transfer of shares was completed and make mandatory provision to pay tax accordingly, and also make necessary and appropriate arrangements after studying the legal provisions related to sweat shares.
It has also recommended the government for legal action against everyone involved in transfer of money to Gorkha Media from cooperatives including Suryadarshan from Pokhara, Supreme from Butwal, Swarnalaxmi from Kathmandu, Sahara Chitwan from Chitwan and Sanopaila from Birgunj.
It has held GB Rai, Kumar Ramtel, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane, who was the then managing director, and Chhabi Lal Joshi responsible for the fraud as share-holders of Gorkha Media pointing that those who are signatories in the company's bank accounts and are involved in financial mobilization of the company must assume responsibility for that.
"Every company has its own objective and spirit. Promoters and share-holders are the ones with main responsibilities in such institutions. Those in the role and responsibility as share-holders, promoters and managing director cannot be allowed to not be responsible and accountable for the money received by the company," the report has stressed to hold Lamichhane and others accountable in the fraud.
The Home Ministry discussed about starting supplementary prosecution against Lamichhane after the report recommended legal action against him.
The Kaski Police was also conducting investigation after a supplementary complaint was filed against him. A team led by DSP Basanta Sharma had reached Kathmandu and questioned Lamichhane around two months back after the committee recorded his statement. Lamichhane had denied his involvement in the cooperative fraud in his statement to the Kaski Police team.
The team had also recorded statement of former DIG and the then promoter of Gorkha Media Chhabi Lal Joshi. The team had also confiscated documents from Galaxy Television, Nature Herbs and Nature Next companies owned by GB Rai who is chairman of Gorkha Media. Rai was Lamichhane's business partner at Gorkha Media.
