The Rupandehi District Court has sent one of the accused arrested in connection with fraud at the Butwal-based Supreme Savings and Credit Cooperative to judicial custody and ordered six others to be released on bail.
A bench of Judge Shree Prakash Upreti on Friday remanded Chairman of Supreme Savings and Credit Cooperative Om Prakash Gurung to judicial custody, according to the court’s information officer Ananta Ram Marasini.
The court ordered Supreme’s former secretary Dipesh Pun, Durga Chapagain Pandeya, Deepak Neupane, Nabin Achhami, Nita Thapa Magar and Roshani Gurung to be released on bail.
The seven were arrested on the charge of embezzling the cooperative's funds worth over Rs 960 million.
According to Marasini, the court has ordered Dipesh Pun, who is the son of former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun, to be released on a bail of Rs 400,000.
Similarly, the court has sought bails of Rs 1.8 million from Durga Chapagain Pandeya, Rs 1 million from Nabin Achhami, Rs 445,000 from Deepak Neupane, and Rs 200,000 each from Nita Thapa Magar and Roshani Gurung.
The bench has ordered Kumar Ramtel and Bhabishwar Aryal, who are in Kaski Jail, to be produced in court.
The District Government Attorney Office had filed a case against 28 individuals over cooperative fraud last Friday. Among them, seven were present during the bail hearing on Friday. The other defendants have been given a deadline to be present in court.
A total of 1,831 depositors had filed complaints with the police accusing the promoters and employees of Supreme Savings and Credit Cooperative of embezzling their savings worth more than Rs 960 million.
