The Kathmandu District Court on Monday has issued arrest warrant against Chairman of Jyoti Group Padma Jyoti in the fraud case for which his younger brother Roop Jyoti and the latter's daughter Suruchi Jyoti are in police custody.
Registrar at the court Ananda Shrestha confirmed with Setopati that the arrest warrant has been issued against former chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Padma Jyoti in the same case.
Malla had signed a baina (a prior-agreement) in August 2014 paying Rs 13.60 million in advance to procure a house to be sold by Landmark. He had signed the agreement not with Landmark but General Manager of construction company CE Construction Shambhu Prasad Phuyal. Malla claims that he paid the money to Phuyal as he was the authorized person acting n behalf of Landmark.
Landmark later decided to not sell that property. CE Construction wrote to Malla around three and a half years later to take back the money citing refusal of Landmark to sell the property.
He refused to take the money back after such a long time and complained with the police claiming that Landmark put pressure on him to take the money back instead of giving the house.
The Metropolitan Police then summoned representatives of Landmark, Malla, and Phuyal for discussion and concluded that Landmark has no connection in the agreement. CE Construction agreed to pay the amount it received from Malla with interest during the discussion.
But Malla again complained with the District Administration Office after that and the office again sent the case to the police. Metropolitan Police Durbar Marg Circle then summoned Roop Jyoti, a shareholder in Landmark, for discussion.
Jyoti then moved the Kathmandu District Court claiming that the police harassed him by summoning for a case he is not connected with and demanded a prohibitory order against the police. But the court refused to issue a prohibitory order and called the case a civil case and instructed the police to settle it accordingly.
Jyoti then deposited Rs 13.60 million that Phuyal took in advance from Malla with the court on November 29, 2018. But Malla again filed a fraud case against Jyoti with the police three days later.
The case took a new turn after the police accepted the complaint and sought the Kathmandu District Court's permission to arrest Jyoti. The court later issued an arrest warrant on December 5, 2018. Jyoti then moved the Supreme Court (SC) against the district court and the Apex Court on December 10, 2018 instructed to keep the arrest warrant on hold.
A bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and Justice Prakash Dhungana almost a year later on November 4, 2019 revoked Jyoti's petition paving the way for his arrest.
The Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu arrested Roop Jyoti and his daughter Suruchi on November 7. The former assistant finance minister Roop was arrested from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at 8:30 in the night immediately after he got off the Silk Air flight coming from Singapore.
The Kathmandu District Court the next day remanded the duo to police custody for three days which was then extended by five days.
