The District Government Attorney’s Office in Kaski has filed chargesheets against Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane and 30 others at the District Court, Kaski, in connection with the Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud case.

According to the office, former home minister Lamichhane and former DIG Chhabilal Joshi, along with Lila Pachaai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, and Krishna Bahadur Gurung, faces charges of cooperative fraud, organised crime, and money laundering. Additionally, cases have been filed against eight companies involved in the scam, said Khyam Narayan Lamichhane, acting registrar at the court.

In the chargesheet, the police determined that as much as Rs1.514 billion needed to be recovered from the accused. The police proposed to the district attorney to file the cases against them on organised crime, cooperative fraud and money laundering charges. The police investigation report states that in the case of Lamichhane, he should be sentenced to 4 to 6 years in prison for cooperative fraud, an additional 50 percent punishment for organised crime, and 2 to 15 years in prison and a fine of double the embezzled amount for money laundering.

On Friday, the Kaski District Attorney’s Office had filed a supplementary chargesheet against Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, chairman of Suryadarshan Cooperative, and 18 others in connection with a large-scale cooperatives fraud case.

The chargesheet, submitted on Friday, include accusations of organised crime and money laundering alongside the earlier allegations of cooperative fraud.

Lamichhane and Joshi, among others, have been accused of diverting deposits from Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Cooperative, Butwal-based Supreme Cooperative, Chitwan-based Sahara Cooperative, Kathmandu-based Swarnalaxmi Cooperative and Parsa-based Sano Paila Cooperative to Gorkha Media Network that ran the now-defunct Galaxy 4K Television. Lamichhane, Joshi and Rai, among others, were partners in the media company. Lamichhane quit the media company to join politics in June 2022.

A special parliamentary probe panel formed to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives has recommended the concerned government authorities investigate Lamichhane, Rai and Joshi, among others, on charges of cooperative fraud.