The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Tulsipur High Court’s decision to send Rastriya Swatantra Party chief Rabi Lamichhane to custody in a cooperative fraud and organised crime case.

A division bench of justices Nahakul Subedi and Balkrishna Dhakal quashed the habeas corpus petition filed by Nikita Paudel demanding the release of her husband, Lamichhane. Achyut Kunwar, the court spokesperson, confirmed the order.

“Based on the immediately available evidence, it could not be reasonably believed that the defendants were innocent of the alleged offence,” the court said in the order.

“Therefore, the order issued by the Tulsipur High Court on April 4 to keep the petitioners Rabi Lamichhane and Chhabilal Joshi in custody for trial proceedings need not be annulled, as there appears to be no error in the ruling. Action shall be taken as per the law.”

Paudel had filed the petition at the court on April 20. Earlier, Lamichhane filed another petition against the high court’s order.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, Lamichhane will remain in custody until the Rupandehi District Court delivers a verdict on the Supreme Cooperative fraud case. He will only be released if acquitted by the district court, and only if he is also cleared of other charges pending in various districts by that time.

Lamichhane has been suspended as a lawmaker following the filing of charges under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2008 in December 2024. Dol Prasad Aryal has been leading the RSP as its acting president after Lamichhane was sent to Rupandehi jail for judicial custody in April.

The apex court also upheld the decision to send former deputy inspector general (DIG) and ex-director of Gorkha Media Network, Chhabilal Joshi, to judicial custody.

The Tulsipur High Court on April 4 sent Lamichhane to judicial custody in a cooperative fraud case. In doing so, it overturned the Rupandehi District Court’s decision to release him on bail.

The district court on January 26 had released Lamichhane on a bail of Rs10 million on the condition that he appeared on scheduled dates. Lamichhane later moved the high court, challenging the lower court order to seek bail from him.

Judge Pralhad Kumar Yogi had ordered Lamichhane to be released on bail, stating, “As there is no reasonable basis to believe the defendant did not commit the alleged crime based on the immediately available evidence, the matter will be further examined during the trial.”

The District Government Attorney’s Office had appealed to the high court, seeking to overturn this order. It had argued that Lamichhane should remain in custody due to the seriousness of the charges and the evidence against him.

The fraud case involves accusations of embezzlement by both Lamichhane and Joshi, with claims of Rs20 million transferred to Lamichhane’s personal account and Rs25 million transferred to Joshi’s.

An audit report has revealed that a sum of Rs109.936 million was deposited into various accounts of Gorkha Media Network. Lamichhane’s statement that Joshi had raised capital ranging from Rs5 million to Rs12 million for the media company was used by the district judge as a basis to determine the bail.

The chargesheet mentions the joint liability of Lamichhane, Joshi, and GB Rai for the Rs109.936 million channelled into Gorkha Media Network. Rai, Lamichhane and Joshi jointly ran the media company. In June 2022, Lamichhane quit the media industry to form the RSP.

Lamichhane was released on bail in several cases: for Rs6.5 million in the Kaski-based Suryadarshan Cooperative case, Rs6 million in the Swarnalakshmi case in Kathmandu, Rs10 million in the Supreme Cooperative case in Rupandehi, and Rs5.4 million in the Sahara Cooperative case in Chitwan.

The Supreme Cooperative case, which involved 28 defendants, including GB Rai, who is on the run, was registered in April last year with a claim of Rs860 million in damages. Among the 28 defendants, 17 individuals now face additional charges.