The Nepali Congress has given until the next House meeting for the government and the ruling parties to constitute a parliamentary committee to investigate fraud charges against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane.

The main opposition, which had been demanding Lamichhane’s resignation, has presented the formation of the probe panel as its precondition for smooth functioning of the House. Taking a special hour of the lower house on Wednesday, Congress lawmaker Ishwari Neupane said House proceedings would be obstructed from the next meeting if their demands remain unaddressed.

“Why do you fear investigation?” she asked. “The reluctance to form a parliamentary probe gives ample room to suspect [Lamichhane’s] involvement in the fraud.”

Following the opposition’s demand, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal appeared before the House on Tuesday and rubbished the allegations against his home minister.

He claimed that all the probes relating to the embezzlement of funds by the Pokhara-based Surya Darshan Cooperative have found no evidence linking Lamichhane to wrongdoing. The prime minister further said that police have briefed him that no further investigation is required against Lamichhane.

Not satisfied with the clarification, the Congress has demanded an in-depth investigation into the matter. As the police force takes command from the home ministry, the party doesn’t believe it can carry out an impartial investigation against the home minister. Thus it is lobbying for a parliamentary probe.

“The prime minister is not a judge who can give clean chit to someone,” said Neupane. “There are ample proofs to establish Lamichhane’s connection to the fraud. If we have formed parliamentary investigation committees in the past, why not this time?”

The next House meeting has been postponed by 10 days until March 31. A team of parliamentarians and officials led by Speaker Devraj Ghimire is travelling to Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday to participate in an event organised by the Inter Parliamentary Union.

Victims of cooperatives on February 5 had lodged a complaint at the District Police Office, Kaski against three people including Lamichhane, who also is the chairperson of the Rastriya Swatantra Party. A probe committee launched by the Pokhara Metropolitan City found that over Rs1.35 billion in public deposits at the cooperative was misappropriated.

Kantipur, the Post’s sister publication, ran a series of stories claiming Lamichhane’s involvement in misappropriating the deposits of a cooperative to buy shares of Gorkha Media Network, a media company.

Lamichhane, a former television host and managing director of a television channel co-founded by Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, has been accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of rupees in collusion with Rai from different cooperatives in Kaski, Chitwan and Butwal.

Rai, who was the chairman of the Gorkha Media Network, the mother company of the channel, is accused of illegally transferring Rs300 million from Kaski-based Surya Darshan Cooperative, Rs110.71 million from Chitwan-based Sahara Cooperative, and Rs 100.74 million from Supreme Cooperative in Butwal, without providing any collateral.

The ruling parties have been claiming that it would be wrong to demand action against someone merely based on an accusation in a complaint without substantial evidence.

Dahal on Tuesday had asked the Congress whether there could be an agreement in taking action against everyone against whom complaints have been filed with government authorities.

When the Congress was still in the government, it had objected to the CPN-UML’s calls to dismiss three ministers including Mohan Bahadur Basnet, then minister for health and population. Basnet has been under investigation by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority for suspected corruption in the procurement of the Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs) for the Nepal Telecommunication Authority.