The Kaski District Court has issued arrest warrants against 25 more individuals in connection with a fraud case involving the Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Savings and Credit Cooperative.

The warrants were issued against former officials of the cooperative who held their positions before 2015, after police accessed software data from the cooperative’s establishment in 2008 and found them linked to the case.

Previously, police filed cases against 19 officials holding various positions after 2015. To date, only five individuals have been arrested. With the new warrants, the total number of defendants has reached 44, according to the police.

Superintendent Mohan Thapa, chief of the Kaski District Police Office, said the arrest warrants were issued a week ago.

“We initially had software records only down to the year 2015. Based on them, arrest warrants were issued against officials only as far back as that. After recovering software records from 2008, we have made 25 more individuals defendants,” said Thapa.

On February 5, victims of cooperatives fraud filed a complaint with the Kaski District Police about four individuals, including Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane, and 14 companies allegedly involved in the misappropriation.

Following the complaint, a team comprising representatives from the municipal office, the Kaski district police office, and the victims prepared a financial analysis report of the cooperative. The report, submitted to the police by Chief of Pokhara Metropolitan City Dhanraj Acharya on May 9, stated that the savings of 18,700 depositors were embezzled.

SP Thapa said the report is being reviewed.

Last year, the court issued arrest warrants against 19 individuals, including former chair Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai. Rai also co-founded Galaxy Television with popular television journalist Lamichhane, who currently is the president of the Rastriya Swatantra Party. Lamichhane, who was ousted as the deputy prime minister and home minister following a government change earlier this week, had quit the television to form a political party. In 2022, he was elected to the federal parliament from Chitwan.

Currently, cooperative vice-chair Kailash Kumar Darlami, treasurer Kumar Ramtel, board member Pramod Bhattarai, former board member Shiva Bahadur Gurung, and IT chief Bhavishwar Aryal are in judicial custody at the Kaski District Prison.

According to the report, as many as 18,700 individuals deposited a total of Rs1.36 billion at the cooperative.

The District Attorney's Office had filed a case, charging them with embezzling Rs1.11 billion. The case is sub judice in the district court.

Rai, Lamichhane and several others close to them have been accused of embezzling millions of rupees also from other cooperatives based in Butwal, Bharatpur and Birgunj, among other towns.

The House of Representatives in May formed a parliamentary special committee to investigate the cooperatives scam. The panel was formed after the erstwhile main opposition Nepali Congress obstructed parliamentary proceedings for weeks demanding a probe into the involvement of then-home minister Lamichhane, among others.

The House panel has been interrogating officials from the authorities overseeing the matter, cooperatives victims and other stakeholders.

After a meeting of the special committee on Friday, committee chair Surya Thapa said documents have shown that Rai, Ramtel and several other people associated with them drew Rs55 million from the Suryadarshan Cooperative to invest in the media company and other companies.