Police on Friday arrested Yogendra Pandey, manager of the Chhipchhipe Consumers Cooperative, on charge of embezzling millions of rupees deposited at the cooperative.

According to Superintendent of Police Narhari Regmi, Pandey was taken into police custody after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Pandey has been accused of embezzling more than Rs100 million from the Kawasoti-based cooperative.

“We took him into custody after the arrest warrant was issued. Investigation is underway,” SP Regmi said.

Agitated depositors had filed an application against Pandey last Thursday, but police have yet to register the complaint.

Accused Pandey was the chair of the board of directors as well as the manager of the cooperative from 2015 until last year.

As per police investigation, Pandey had taken a loan of Rs3.2 million from the cooperative by keeping a plot of land as collateral in December last year. A month later, the accused released the land from the land revenue office using fake documents without repaying the loan.

Currently, the cooperative is headed by Gopi Sharma Bhusal, who has also been found to have misappropriated savings of the depositors. As per police investigation, the board members and manager have been found to have worked in collusion to embezzle more than Rs100 million of the cooperative.

Investigation has also revealed that Pandey used the money of the depositors in loan sharking and approved loans to his close ones and himself without any collateral, Bhesh Raj Rijal, head of Gandaki Province Office of Registrar of the Department of Cooperatives, told the Post.

“The amount he spent on loan sharking cannot be immediately revealed,” Rijal said.