The Chitwan District Court has ordered the release of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chair and former home minister Rabi Lamichhane on a bail of Rs5.4 million in connection with a case of cooperative fraud involving the Sahara Multipurpose Cooperative.

Judge Dayaram Dhakal, following a remand hearing that concluded on Wednesday, issued the order to free Lamichhane on bail. Lamichhane will be released once the bail is furnished.

The case alleges that Lamichhane, along with three other individuals, is responsible for a financial loss of over Rs100.8 million that was embezzzled from the Bharatpur-based Sahara Cooperative, linked to Gorkha Media Network, and subsequently misused for the now-defunct Galaxy 4K TV. The plaintiffs have called for Lamichhane to face a seven-year prison sentence and a fine of Rs70,000, along with restitution for his share of the embezzled funds.

District attorneys Rabi Neupane, Shambhu Kumar Basnet, Dasharath Pangeni, and Bholanath Niroula, along with assistant attorneys Buddha Bahadur Thapa and Amrit Subedi, represented the prosecution. Senior lawyers Surendra Bhandari, Dinesh Tripathi, and Rajkumar Shrestha, among others, presented the case on behalf of the victims.

On the other hand, Lamichhane’s defence team, which included senior advocates Sushil Kumar Pant, Jagannath Paudel, Dharmaraj Acharya, and Surendra Bahadur Thapa, argued that the accusations against him were politically motivated.

This is not Lamichhane’s first bail in a cooperative fraud case. He was granted bail in previous cases involving similar allegations. The Kaski District Court released him on Rs6.5 million bail in connection with the Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud, while the Kathmandu District Court ordered a bail of Rs6 million in the Swarnalakshmi Cooperative case. Rupandehi District Court released him on Rs10 million bail for his involvement in similar fraud at Butwal-based Supreme Cooperative.

To date, Lamichhane has secured bail in three separate cooperative fraud cases, totalling Rs22 million. He remains implicated in other fraud cases, including an ongoing investigation in Parsa, related to the Sanopaila Cooperative.

Lamichhane denies any wrongdoing.