Parliamentary committee confirms Lamichhane’s involvement in embezzlement of cooperative deposits

Speaker of Parliament Devraj Ghimire has instructed the Parliamentary Secretariat to forward the report on the cooperative inquiry submitted by a committee of inquiry to the House of Representatives to the government for implementation.

The seven-member parliamentary select committee set up to investigate the cooperative fraud presented its report to Parliament at a sitting of the House of Commons on Monday.

On May 28, Parliament set up the Special Investigation Committee to investigate the embezzlement of deposits in dozens of cooperatives across the country.

After committee chairman Surya Thapa submitted the report to the House on Monday, Speaker Ghimire directed the Secretariat to send it to the government for implementation.

After more than three months of intensive investigation, the inquiry committee concluded that former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane was involved in embezzlement of millions of rupees from several cooperative societies when he was the Managing Director of Gorkha Media Network before entering politics in June 2022.

The committee has suggested that the government take action under existing laws against Rastriya Swatantra Party leader Lamichhane for allegedly being involved in embezzlement of funds invested by common people in various cooperative societies. Various investigations, including the parliamentary committee inquiry, have revealed that nearly a billion rupees were siphoned from several cooperative societies and invested in the media company co-founded and jointly run by GB (Gitendra Babu) Rai and Lamichhane, among others. The police issued an arrest warrant against Rai in January, who is now on the run.

The committee also concluded that the officials of Gorkha Media Network had used forged documents in transferring shares of the company and recommended that the government investigate the matter in detail and take necessary action.

The report prepared by the committee and unanimously approved was submitted to the House of Representatives on Sunday after consultation with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

The seven-member committee led by Thapa includes Sarita Bhusal of the UML, Ishwori Devi Neupane and Dilendra Prasad Badu of the Nepali Congress, Lekhnath Dahal of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Shishir Khanal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party as members.