Nepal’s former home minister Rabi Lamichanne arrested over alleged cooperative fraud

KATHMANDU – Nepal’s former deputy prime minister and home minister Rabi Lamichhane was arrested on Friday evening over his alleged involvement in cooperative fraud and an organized crime.

A team of the Central Investigation Bureau under Nepal Police took Lamichhane away from his party’s central office in Kathmandu, as the Kaski District Court issued an arrest warrant against him and 13 others hours ago for allegedly embezzling cooperative fund and involving in an organized crime.

A parliamentary special probe committee formed in May to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives  concluded that Lamichhane was involved in misusing millions of rupees funnelled into Gorkha Media Network from various cooperatives when he was the managing director of the now-defunct media company that ran Galaxy 4K Television. This happened before he joined politics in June 2022.

Also, other investigations conducted by police and Pokhara Metropolitan City, among others, had established Lamichhane’s involvement in misusing public money deposited in several cooperatives.

Alongside charges of cooperative fraud, Lamichhane has also been accused of engaging in organized crime, broadening the scope of the legal case against him.

Lamichhane’s arrest had been on the cards, mainly after police arrested former deputy inspector general (DIG) Chhabi Lal Joshi on September 22 from Kathmandu on the charge of misappropriating funds of Suryadarshan Savings and Credit Cooperative Limited in Pokhara. Joshi was one of the founders of the media company.

Kaski police have since recorded Joshi’s statements, extending his remand multiple times from the Kaski District Court.