The District Government Attorney’s Office, Banke, filed a case against 109 individuals in the Nepalgunj bench of Tulsipur High Court on Wednesday, charging them with involvement in the embezzlement at Karnali Development Bank and demanding recovery of Rs 3.2 billion in damages from them.
Of the 109 accused, four have been arrested, two are deceased, and the rest are absconding.
The deceased include Mahesh Jung Thapa, operator of Rapti Polymers Pvt Ltd, and the bank’s then-employee Dhananjay Kashyap.
Those arrested include founding chairman Rajendra Bir Raya, then-finance officer Bed Prakash Singh Thakuri, board chairman Pashupati Dayal Mishra, and Nepal Rastra Bank’s supervision officer Bhuwan Basnet.
They have all been charged with banking offenses.
A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police was dispatched to Nepalgunj from Kathmandu to investigate the case. The CIB team completed its investigation last week.
The investigation revealed that over Rs 3.2 billion was misappropriated from the bank.
According to the charge sheet, Rs 1.12 billion was brought in cash from other banks and misappropriated without depositing the amount into the bank.
Additionally, Rs 153 million sent for deposit in other banks was not recorded either, the charge sheet said.
The bank has 100,000 depositors. Nepal Rastra Bank has been managing the bank’s operations after it was declared troubled.
