According to the research report, 160 crores of unsecured investment in private schools and 180 crores of real estate were misused against the law
District Coordination Committee Chief Rajkumar Thapa has been arrested on charges of defrauding Kumari Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Beni, Myagdi, of one and a half billion rupees savings. The others arrested are Manprasad Thajali, Tham Bahadur Garbuja, Rudra Bahadur Gurung and Devikumari Thapa.
In an investigation report conducted by the Gandaki Provincial Cooperative Registrar Office in Pokhara a year ago, it is mentioned that `1 billion 49 million rupees of savings of the cooperative was embezzled in the plan of Jesus Chief Thapa.
Jesus Chief Thapa is the former vice-president of the cooperative, while Thajali and Garbuja are the former presidents, Gurung is the former manager and Devkumari is the former treasurer. While Thapa was the vice president, Garbuja was the president of the cooperative. District Court Myagdi has allowed them to be detained for three days for investigation.
It has been pointed out in the report of the cooperative office that the team including Thapa, who is also a UML leader, misused the funds of the cooperative by using it to buy private boarding schools and real estate. It is mentioned in the report that although Garbuja was the chairman of the cooperative at that time, the work was being done under the direction of the vice president Thapa.
The current chairman of the cooperative, Yama Bahadur Rokkasamet, submitted a written application to the provincial cooperative registrar's office on 28 March 2017 and demanded an investigation. According to their demand, the registrar's office authorized financial analyst Nirmal Gautam to conduct the investigation. Gautam's investigation report has shown that 1 billion 49 million was embezzled from cooperatives in Thapa's main plan. In the
report, it is said, "Buddh Academy, a private school run by Thapa in Beni Bazar, has been invested in an unsecured cooperative against the law. 16 million rupees have been invested in the cooperative, which was opened in 065. Thapa was the secretary for two terms at the beginning and then the vice president until Jesus was elected as the head in 079. It is also mentioned in the report that Thapa and former director Lok Bahadur Pun took 180 crores from the cooperative and carried out business in Jaljal of Parbat.
It has also been seen that the board of directors officers of the cooperative hold most of the shares of the cooperative in the name of their family members. There are only 486 share members in this cooperative which has 4386 savers.
Provincial cooperative registrar's office instructed to deposit all embezzled savings in the cooperative within 3 months after receiving the investigation report, but it was not followed. According to Inspector Sagar Paudel, information officer of Myagdi police, they were arrested after the registrar's office sent a letter to the police to investigate. In the
investigation report, it is mentioned that with the connivance of the board members and the manager, shares were kept in the name of the family and a pattern of embezzlement of public money was woven. Thapa, who is said to be the main mastermind behind the embezzlement, took money in the name of various people. Nirmal Gautam, a financial analyst assigned to the investigation, says that they embezzled the funds of the cooperative by taking interest-free loans.
Earlier in Gandaki province, a report of embezzlement of 1.59 billion was published in Pokhara's Prime Cooperative. Savers complain that the investigation has not been effective because most of the people involved in embezzlement have access to the upper levels of politics. On the other hand, on the basis of the evidence of embezzlement of one and a half billion rupees in Image Cooperative of Baglung, the chairman of the co-operative, Dev Kumar Nepali, who is also the head of Dhorpatan Municipality, has been arrested and is under investigation.
