The then Managing Director of Gorkha Media Network and former Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane has been arrested on the charge of defrauding the savings deposited by common people in cooperatives.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police arrested Lamichhane from Kathmandu on Friday evening after the District Court Kaski gave permission to investigate him in fraud and organized crime investigation. He was taken to Pokhara on Friday night.

The cooperative has been closed for two years after the savings deposited by 18 thousand 750 common people of Pokhara in Suryadarshan Cooperative were embezzled. Before that, the police alleged that the savings of the cooperative were embezzled by the president Geetendrababu Rai, the then managing director Lamichhane, the directors Chabilal Joshi and Kumar Ramtel by bringing them to Gorkha Media Network. Ramtel, who was arrested earlier, is in Kaski jail pending remand, while Chabilal has been in Kaski police custody for a month. GB is absconding while Ravi was arrested on Friday.

It had been 27 days since the arrest of Gorkha Media's ex-DIG Chavilal Joshi in the cooperative fraud and organized crime investigation. The cooperative victim was raising questions about not arresting Lamichhane, who was involved in embezzlement of the same nature. The court opened on Friday after the Dasain holiday.

When Joshi was taken to extend the deadline on Friday, the police was also preparing to take an arrest warrant against Lamichhane. At the meeting of the opposition parties held in Kathmandu on Friday, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal gave a 'briefing' about the possibility of Lamichhane's arrest. Not a single judge was present in the district court to extend the deadline and issue the arrest warrant. Justices Navraj Dahal, Himlal Belvase, Bholanath Dhakal, Hariprasad Koirala, Chandrakant Paudel and Nitij Rai were on leave. Srestedar Rajan Khanal also did not go to the court. Another judge Krishnajung Shah was preparing to come to Pokhara by ship from Nepalganj via Kathmandu. Due to bad weather, it was not certain whether the ship would fly/not fly.

• GB Rai, who has been arrested for embezzling the money saved by the common people in cooperatives, is absconding; Kumar Ramtel, the owner of Gorkha Media, is in Kaski jail pending remand, while Chabilal Joshi has been in Kaski police custody for a month.
• Ravi Lamichhane was arrested on Friday, he brought 655 million 54 lakhs from the sweat earnings of ordinary workers to the cooperative and spent it by cutting checks as the company's sweat share.  The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee found that the funds of cooperatives in Pokhara, Butwal, Chitwan and Kathmandu were embezzled in an organized manner, and when 15 percent of the shares were transacted, bank receipts were also made and submitted to the company registrar. If the judge did not come, they were in two minds about what to do. According to Suraj Adhikari, information officer of the court, since it was the first time that all seven judges could not be present, discussions were going on about what to do. At around 2:30 p.m., the news came that Judge Krishnajung Shah had landed at Pokhara airport. He entered the court at about 3 p.m.
• Before he came, the police team involved in the investigation of Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud along with SP Shyam Olia of District Police Office Kaski, DSP Vasant Kumar Sharma had reached the court with the file. Submitting the file including financial analysis report prepared by Pokhara metropolis, report of parliamentary investigation committee, report of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to the court, police asked for arrest warrant against 14 people involved in Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud including Lamichhane. Around 5 pm, the court allowed the arrest.
  

The District Court of Kaski has allowed the police to arrest not only Lamichhane, but also 14 people, including him, in embezzling the savings of Suryadarshan Cooperative in Pokhara. The court also allowed the arrest of Ravi Lamichhane, Vishal Tamang, Naveen Achami, Ravina Rimal, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Deepak Lama, Anantababu Rai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Devendrababu Rai, Vigyan Rai, Omprakash Gurung, Veer Bahadur Ranabhat, Deepa Neupane and Kalpanakumari Shrestha. A case has already been filed against 19 people in Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud.

After the first phase of investigation in the Suryadarshan Cooperative case, a case was filed in the district court against 19 people including Geetendrababu (GB) Rai, president of Gorkha Media, on October 18, 2080. Among them, the cooperative's vice president Kailash Kumar Darlami, treasurer Kumar Ramtel, managing committee member Pramod Bhattarai, former managing committee member Shiv Bahadur Gurung and RET chief Bhaveshwar Aryal are in custody in Kaski jail pending trial. Lamichhane was arrested during the second phase of investigation.

When the police investigated the first phase of the embezzlement of Suryadarshan Cooperative's savings and filed a case in August 2080, the government granted immunity to people including Lamichhane. At that time, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was the Prime Minister. However, the aggrieved saver filed a supplementary complaint on 080 Magh 22, asking to investigate the accused of co-operative fraud including Lamichhane. However, the investigation was blocked after Lamichhane himself became the home minister on February 21. Soon after, a special committee of parliamentary inquiry was formed after continuous voices were raised in the media and parliament.

18 thousand 750 savers in Suryadarshan Cooperative had savings of 1 billion 35 million 53 lakh 54 thousand 898 rupees. The case filed by the district attorney's office claiming 1 billion 113 million 43 thousand is pending in the court. It is mentioned in the report that 1 billion 31 crore 53 lakh 82 thousand 908 rupees have been invested by the cooperative. Of this, Tamsuk also has an investment of Rs 30 crore in Gorkha Media Network.

After Kaski district judge Krishnajung Shah gave permission to arrest Lamichhane, Kaski police sent a letter to Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office and District Police Complex, Crime Investigation Branch Kathmandu to arrest Lamichhane and bring him to court. In the letter, it is mentioned that 'Kaski District Court has issued permission to arrest the defendant Suryadarshan Savings and Loan Cooperative Society, Pokhara's ex-president and director Geetendra Babu Rai in connection with the investigation of cases related to fraud and organized crime as defined by the Cooperative Act. 

After the correspondence, the team led by CIB SP Hobindra Bogti reached the RSVP office at Vanasthali. The CIB team handed over the arrest warrant to Lamichhane at 7:30 pm. He has been taken to Pokhara by land.

Since Saturday is a public holiday, Lamichhane will be brought to court during office hours on Sunday, according to District Police Office Kaski. In the arrest warrant issued by the court, it is mentioned that Lamichhane has been requested for an arrest permit according to Section 9 (3) of the Civil Code of Criminal Procedure, and that there is a reasonable basis and reason to investigate it. CIB chief AIG Deepak Thapa said that Lamichhane was arrested to investigate the crime of organized crime and cooperative fraud after the court order. "Lamichhane has been arrested with the permission of District Court Kaski, he will be produced in court during office hours," he said.

Suryadarshan of Pokhara, Supreme of Butwal, Sahara of Chitwan and Swarnalakshmi Sahakari of Kathmandu, which are managed by Geetendrababu (GB) Rai and Ravi Lamichhane, have been brought to Gorkha Media Network, which is chaired by GB Rai and Ravi Lamichhane, and most of it is from Lamichhane. It is mentioned in the report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Special Committee that he himself cut the check and spent it. 

Lamichhane said that the 'sweat share' he got in the Gorkha media was done by the committee. The conclusion of the committee is that, while buying and selling shares in companies including Gorkha Media Network Pvt. Lamichhane took 15 percent shares of Gorkha Media as his investment through Ravi Lamichhane/Roshni Gurung from Supreme Cooperative in Butwal. When he left the company, Lamichhane had also submitted a paper with his fingerprints to the company registrar's office saying that he had received Rs 18 million for the shares. But he accepted these papers as 'fake and fake' in the press conference. 

The Parliamentary Inquiry Special Committee formed on May 15 under the coordination of MP Surya Bahadur Thapa directed the government to take action against Gorkha Media Chairman Geetendra Babu (GB) Rai, former Managing Director Lamichhane, director Chabilal Joshi and Kumar Ramtel. The committee had cleared the way to take action against them as per the existing laws saying that they would attract offenses related to organized crime, fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The report submitted by the committee to the House of Representatives on August 31 was sent to the Prime Minister's Office after the instructions of Speaker Devraj Ghimire. The Council of Ministers sent the report to the Police Headquarters through the Ministry of Home Affairs, from where the report reached the Kaski Police. According to the report of the

committee, most of the funds that came into the account were spent through checks signed by the then managing director Lamichhane. Although it was proved that Rai, Lamichhane and Joshi had opened a bank account by filling the customer identification card (KYC) form with the name, date, company name, address, photograph, triplicate, fingerprint and signature, Lamichhane claimed that no money came into his account from the cooperative.

The team of Kaski police came to Kathmandu and made a statement with Joshi on August 8 and with Lamichhane on August 10. Joshi, the former vice president of Gorkha Media, was arrested from Shankhamul in Kathmandu on October 6 after the report of the parliamentary committee. Police are investigating him. Joshi claimed that Rai, Lamichhane and others were involved in embezzling money from the cooperative through Gorkha media and claiming that he is innocent. Rai, who has been absconding since last year, is currently in Malaysia, police said.

Joshi is allowed to be detained for another 20 days

The former director of Gorkha Media, who was arrested on October 6 in the case of misappropriation of cooperative savings funds, 

The Kaski District Court has extended the deadline of 20 days for the investigation against Chhabilal Joshi. Earlier, he was detained for 5 days for the first time and 7 days for the second time. Suraj Adhikari, Information Officer of Kaski District Court, informed that the extension date was shortened and soon after that the court extended the deadline by 20 days to be effective from October 17.