The District Attorney’s Office in Chitwan filed a case against Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai and 16 others at the Chitwan District Court on Tuesday for the alleged embezzlement of savings from Sahara Chitwan Multipurpose Cooperative. However, Chitwan Police have not arrested anyone to date.

According to district attorney Shanti Prasad Luintel, the case was filed based on an investigation report following complaints from 446 depositors of Sahara Cooperative. The complainants claimed that the cooperative failed to return savings totaling Rs376,584,546. The investigation report further mentions that the cooperative has 6,334 depositors with total savings amounting to Rs523,285,308.

The district attorney's office has directed the police to reopen an investigation into the now defunct Gorkha Media, as funds from Sahara Cooperative appear to have been transferred there. The police are expected to submit a supplementary report on the matter.

Kumar Ramtel, one of the board members of the Gorkha Media Network arrested by Kaski Police on charges of misappropriating cooperative funds and subsequently remanded in custody, was brought to Chitwan for questioning. Of the remaining 16 accused, 11 are on the run, 3 are already imprisoned, and 3 are absentees, according to the case filed.

The attorney's office has also instructed Chitwan Police to further investigate the transactions amounting to Rs470 million, which was deposited into Gorkha Media's account at Global IME Bank, as details on the nature and parties involved in these transactions have not yet been fully uncovered.

Earlier, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak directed the police to implement the report prepared and submitted by the parliamentary special investigation committee formed to probe the cooperatives scam. Consequently, Nepal Police’s ex-DIG Chhabilal Joshi was arrested from Kathmandu and produced before Kaski court for the investigation of allegations on cooperative-related fraud and organised crime.