Police have arrested a chairman of a cooperatives on the charge of embezzling savings of depositors.

A police team of the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Tuesday arrested Rabindra Chaulagain, 39, chairman of the Deurali Saving and Credit Cooperatives Ltd.

According to Superintendent of Police Nawaraj Adhikari, CIB spokesperson, Chaulagain has been accused of misappropriating over Rs40.49 million in savings of depositors of the cooperatives.

Chaulagain had lured customers to deposit their money in the cooperatives promising them attractive interest rates.

Depositors had lodged a complaint with the police after Chaulagain refused to return their money, police said.

Of late, victims of cooperatives have been taking to the streets pleading with the authorities to help them get their savings back. Hundreds of people who deposited their hard-earned cash in cooperatives are now in trouble as the cooperative operators have gone out of contact. Many of those in contact tell them that they can’t immediately return the deposits.