Police in Kathmandu have now started investigation against Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane, former deputy inspector general (DIG) of Nepal Police Chhabi Lal Joshi and Kumar Ramtel on the charge of diverting funds from cooperatives to Gorkha Media Network when they were holding key positions in the media company.

The Kathmandu District Court on Sunday permitted the police to arrest former home minister Lamichhane and former DIG Joshi to investigate the charges of misusing deposits of Swarnalakshmi Savings Cooperative in Kalimati, Kathmandu. Earlier, the court had also authorised the arrest of 24 others, including Gorkha Media chair Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, in relation to the same case.

Lamichhane, Joshi and Ramtel have already been arrested and are being interrogated in Kaski and Rupandehi districts over the misuse of cooperative funds.

With this, the police are now simultaneously investigating them in the three districts of Kathmandu, Kaski and Rupandehi.

The trio is accused of diverting tens of millions of rupees from Kathmandu-based Swarnalaxmi Cooperative, Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Cooperative and Butwal-based Supreme Cooperative to Gorkha Media Network that operated the now-defunct Galaxy 4K Television. Rai and Lamichhane were chairman and managing director of the media company respectively. Joshi and Ramtel were also board members.

Lamichhane quit media to join politics in June, 2022.

Ramtel, implicated in the Swarnalaxmi Cooperative fraud case, was brought from Pokhara to Kathmandu for further interrogation on November 16.

After completing Ramtel’s interrogation, police now plan to bring Lamichhane and Joshi, who are in police custody in Pokhara, to Kathmandu. A police officer said they will be brought to Kathmandu to be interrogated over the misappropriation of money from Swarnalaxmi Cooperative.

Lamichhane, Joshi and Ramtel were also taken to Rupandehi for interrogation and brought back to Kaski last week.

Ramtel, the treasurer of Surya Darshan Cooperative in Pokhara, was arrested on September 11 and held in Pokhara before he was brought to Kathmandu in a separate cooperative fraud investigation. A police officer privy to the development said that after Ramtel’s interrogation in Kathmandu, he was sent to Pokhara on Sunday night.

However, Nawaraj Adhikari, the spokesperson of the Kathmandu Police Range, refused to divulge when Lamichhane and Joshi will also be brought to Kathmandu from Pokhara. He also declined to give more details on Ramtel’s interrogation.

The Swarnalaxmi Cooperative fraud case began with complaints filed at the Kalimati Police Circle and involved 24 suspects, including the cooperative’s chairman GB Rai, and Ramtel, the treasurer. Police estimate a misappropriation of Rs1.11 billion, affecting 645 depositors.

While the trio is under police remand, Rai is on the run. Despite a Interpol red notice against him, his whereabouts are still unknown.

Based on the complaint filed by the victim to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the police, along with the report of the Parliamentary Special Investigation Committee formed to investigate the crisis-ridden cooperatives, the police were granted permission by the court to arrest 24 people accused in the case in the Swarnalaxmi Cooperative fraud case.

The Gorkha Media Network leadership reportedly misappropriated funds of Swarnalaxmi, Suryadarshan, Supreme and some other cooperatives across the country.

Joshi was arrested from Kathmandu on September 22 and Lamichhane on October 18 and both were taken to Pokhara.

Earlier in September, the parliamentary special probe, in its report submitted to Speaker Devraj Ghimire, recommended prosecuting four individuals, including Lamichhane, the then managing director of Gorkha Media Network; chairman Rai; board member Ramtel; and initial founder Joshi.

Following Lamichhane’s arrest, the RSP has been staging street protests since October 19, saying the arrest is politically motivated.