The Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Rabi Lamichhane, chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and former home minister, on bail of Rs6 million in connection with the Kathmandu-based Swarnalakshmi Cooperative fraud case.

The decision came after a pre-trial remand hearing conducted by a single bench led by Judge Madhav Prasad Adhikari.

The RSP chief had produced himself before the Court in Kathmandu on Sunday, three days after his release on bail in similar offences in Pokhara. Kaski District Court freed Lamichhane after the latter’s 84-day police detention in Pokhara.

Lamichhane is accused of misappropriating Rs1.199 billion from the Swarnalakshmi Cooperative alongside 38 accomplices, including key officials of the Gorkha Media Network including former vice chair Chhabilal Joshi, chair Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, and director Kumar Ramtel. They are accused of illegally diverting the cooperative funds to the media company, which ran now-defunct Galaxy 4K Television. Lamichhane was managing director of the company before joining politics in June 2022. 

The charges include cooperative fraud and organised financial crimes, alleging systematic diversion of funds. Police investigations also link the accused to cooperative fraud in Butwal, Chitwan, and Parsa.

Lamichhane, who was previously released on Rs6.5 million bail by the Kaski District Court in a separate case concerning the Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Cooperative, has pledged full cooperation with ongoing investigations.

Police investigations have expanded to include cooperatives in other districts, including Rupandehi, Chitwan, and Parsa. The focus of these investigations is on the systematic embezzlement of funds, which, according to authorities, were misused in a coordinated effort across multiple cooperatives.

Meanwhile, the RSP supporters present on the court premises have tried to manhandle senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi, who pleaded on behalf of the cooperative victims in the case.

The situation couldn’t take a nasty turn as police promptly intervened and escorted Tripathi when the angry RSP supporters tried to assault the senior advocate when he emerged from the court after the hearing.