The Kaski District Court has extended the custody of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane, who was arrested on charges of cooperative fraud and organized crime, by seven days.
According to Suraj Adhikari, the court’s information officer, a bench of Judge Chandra Kanta Paudel on Thursday granted the police permission to keep Lamichhane in custody for another seven days for investigation.
Lamichhane was earlier remanded to custody for six days.
RSP has been holding protests in Pokhara ever since Lamichhane was arrested. The party is now preparing to launch Kathmandu-centric protests.
A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police led by SP Habindra Bogati arrested Lamichhane from the party’s central office in Chamati of Kathmandu last Friday after the Kaski District Court issued an arrest warrant for Lamichhane and 13 others on request of Kaski Police earlier that day. He was brought to Pokhara the same night.
The other persons who had arrest warrant issued in their names 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.
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.
