Kaski District Court on Friday has allowed the police to arrest former deputy prime minister and Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane in connection with an investigation into cooperative fraud and organised crime charges.

A bench of Judge Krishna Jung Shah granted police the permission to arrest Lamichhane following a request for an arrest warrant from the District Police Office Kaski.

Superintendent of Police Shyam Babu Oli, who is also chief of Kaski Police, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Basant Kumar Sharma, appeared in the court to secure the permission.

The bench also allowed the police to arrest 13 others—Bishal Tamang, Navin Achami, Rabina Rimal, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Dipak Lama, Ananta Babu Rai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Devendra Babu Rai, Bigyan Rai, Om Prakash Gurung, Bir Bahadur Ranabhat, Deepa Neupane, and Kalpana Kumari Shrestha–in connection with the same charges.

A parliamentary special probe committee was formed to investigate crisis-ridden cooperatives. The committee’s report concluded that Lamichhane was involved in misusing millions of rupees funnelled into Gorkha Media Network from various cooperatives when he was the managing director of the now-defunct media company that ran Galaxy 4K Television. The report also holds several others responsible for their roles in the cooperative fraud.

The committee’s report calls for action against former deputy prime minister and home minister Lamichhane, and several others, as per the law.

The report has said over Rs63 billion was embezzled by cooperative owners from various crisis-ridden cooperatives across the country. It has recommended prosecuting four individuals, including Lamichhane, the then managing director of Gorkha Media Network; chairman Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai; a board member Kumar Ramtel; and initial founder of the company Chhabi Lal Joshi.

Joshi, a former deputy inspector general of Nepal Police, was arrested in Kathmandu a month ago. However, Lamichhane and the leaders of the Rastriya Swatantra Party deny any wrongdoing.

The special probe committee was formed on May 28. The seven-member committee was formed as per the demand of the then main opposition Nepali Congress that had been demanding such a committee to probe cooperative fraud and had even been obstructing parliamentary proceedings demanding the same.

Joshi, a retired deputy inspector general (DIG) of Nepal Police, is currently in custody.