Industrialist Shekhar Golchha was arrested in Kathmandu on Thursday in connection with an alleged share trading scheme under investigation.

Chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, Manoj KC, said Golchha was detained from the Naxal area after a warrant was issued by the Kathmandu District Court. He was taken into custody for investigation, the bureau said.

Golchha is the chairman of the Golchha Group and a former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), serving from 2020 to 2023.

His arrest follows an investigation and supervision report prepared by the Securities Board of Nepal into alleged collusion in share trading involving controversial businessmen Deepak Bhatta and Sulav Agrawal, who are already in police custody in a money laundering probe.

The report names five individuals—Raj Bahadur Shah, Shubhi Agrawal, Rishi Raj More and Sandip Chachan, among others—as accused and identifies several others, including Golchha, as facilitators. It links the group to activities such as credit trading, price manipulation and unsettled transactions that may have artificially influenced share prices.

According to the report, funds associated with Golchha and several institutions were used by a stockbroker to purchase shares in the names of Bhatta and others. The broker is said to owe Golchha around Rs525 million.

Golchha had earlier told Kantipur that he resigned as chairman of Himalayan Reinsurance Company after learning of alleged illegal share purchases by Bhatta, Agrawal and his wife, Shubhi Agrawal.

“Such a large transaction had taken place, and funds of various public limited companies had been misused,” he said, adding that the issue was not even tabled at a board meeting. He maintained that he was not the ultimate beneficiary of the transactions.