CIB investigation on Congress vice-president Gurung in cooperative fraud

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police registered a complaint filed on behalf of the owner of the cooperative, Bodhvikram Thapa, and said that it has started an investigation against Gurung, his ex-wife Jyoti Gurung, and the owner and employees of the cooperative who were involved in the fraud case.

Congress leader Dhanraj has been denying his involvement with Jyoti Gurung, who was involved in misappropriating the funds of the cooperative, saying that he got divorced in 2076. Jyoti Gurung, another accused involved in the fraud, along with Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari, are currently absconding. Spokesperson of CIB, Superintendent of Police (SP) Hobindra Bogti said that the investigation into the fraud case has been started in coordination with the Wagmati Provincial Government and Lalitpur Metropolitan Municipality after receiving a complaint from the cooperative's director.

Congress Vice President Gurung's ex-wife Jyoti Gurung had filed a complaint with the CIB on the charge of defrauding the cooperative of Rs 140 million by Thapa, the owner of the same cooperative. The CIB stated that individual complaints related to co-operative fraud will not be registered, and the investigation can only be conducted on the basis of the relevant local level, state government or association's cooperative, government and parliamentary investigation study reports.

The police was also criticized for not investigating the embezzlement of public savings. However, CIB has formally started investigation on this case from Friday in coordination with Lalitpur Metropolitan Municipality and Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Cooperatives of Wagmati Province after preliminary study on fraud.

CIB Spokesperson SP Bogti said that during the initial study on the complaint, there was sufficient evidence that the co-operative's funds were embezzled and that the directors and employees of the co-operative were involved. On August 6, Kumbharaj Gurung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Miteri Cooperative, revealed to the parliamentary investigation special committee led by MP Surya Bahadur Thapa that people including Congress leader Gurung's wife Jyoti were involved in the co-operative fraud case and the leader Gurung was also knowledgeable about the matter. After that, when this case was not investigated, people including Jyoti and Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari of Kaski started embezzling the savings of the cooperative from 2075 and now the embezzled amount has reached 120 crores.

CIB spokesperson Bogti also called upon the victim savers to lodge a complaint saying that the investigation in the Miteri Cooperative fraud case has progressed.

We have started research on this matter. Assistance has also been sought from the Wagmati state government and the Lalitpur Metropolitan Corporation," Bogti told Kantipur. "If the savers have been cheated by Miteri cooperatives, they can also come to CIB and file a complaint. The directors, employees and other outsiders of the cooperative who are involved in the fraud will be brought to justice. Leader Gurung's wife Jyoti entered the cooperative on May 12, 2057 as an assistant level employee. After 2 months, she became the accountant of Jyoti Sahakari on July 25, senior accountant on May 4, 2070 and general manager on May 4, 2075.

After becoming the general manager, it has also been revealed that he has put Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari's money as a meter badge. After she became the general manager, Bhandari repeatedly put the money of the cooperative in the meter badge. Initially, Jyoti Gurung withdrew Rs 30 lakh from the cooperative and gave Jyoti Bhandari a loan for a week, but Bhandari returned it by adding Rs 5 lakh.

It has also been revealed that Bhandari returned the amount by adding 10 million the next week after giving 40 million in the second phase. 6 million was returned for giving 5 million once. In this way, when the co-operative's money was put into the meter bank every week, attractive money started coming in, and this process increased, and she put Bhandari in a meter bank of about 3.5 million rupees.

But, without returning the said amount, Bhandari became uncontactable. According to a member of the cooperative and the investigating police source, Congress leader Dhanraj was aware of this business of his wife at that time. According to police sources, it was found that the embezzlement of funds from the cooperative continued until 2079.

Dhanraj divorced his wife in 2076 after the issue of the cooperative case was leaked to the board of directors and shareholders. Before that, the co-operative directors discussed the matter of misappropriation of funds by bringing Dhanraj and Jyoti Gurung along with them. However, after two months in February, it was revealed that Jyoti and Dhanraj got divorced. Divorce is not natural, and the demand for a detailed investigation has also been raised in the parliament. On the other hand, it has been found that Bhandari, who is absconding after taking the money from Jyoti in the meter badge, has tricked the directors of the cooperative to defraud more money from the cooperative.

The operators who have cheated other funds have revealed to the police that they have 31 million 11 million rupees and that they need a commission to get this amount. For this fraud, Bhandari also created fake vouchers in which the funds were deposited in Global IME Bank. Being lured by such a large amount in the name of the cooperative, the other owners gave Rs. However, the amount of the cooperative was not collected later, after receiving the said amount of commission, Bhandari was out of touch. According to the police, Jyoti Gurung charged Bhandari with a meter badge of around 3.5 crores and later other operators gave commissions to Bhandari in the hope of collecting a large amount of deposits.

'Because of Jyoti Gurung's payment to the cooperative, Bhandari used to return the amount to the meter bank every week, sometimes 15 days and sometimes in a month. Later, after taking more than 3.5 million rupees, Bhandari ran away and has not been contacted until now,' said a police officer involved in the investigation. , 'Jyoti Gurung is also out of touch after the misappropriation of funds from the cooperative. Now the investigation has progressed on this subtly.'