A case has been filed in the district court on Tuesday against 15 people including Ravi Lamichhane, the founding chairman of RSWP, in the Sahara Chitwan Multi-Purpose Cooperative fraud. With this, the number of accused in the Sahara cooperative fraud has reached 32.

Earlier, on October 8, based on the police investigation report, the public prosecutor's office filed a case against only 17 people, excluding Lamichhane and others. At that time, the public prosecutor's office had instructed the police to conduct a supplementary investigation saying that the funds of the said cooperative had gone to the Gorkha media network. Based on the supplementary investigation report of the police, a case was filed against 15 more people including Lamichhane on Tuesday.

In the indictment filed in the court, it is mentioned that one crore rupees were taken from Sahara Cooperative as 'sid money' for the establishment of Gorkha media network. Along with this, it is claimed that 108 million 18 thousand was taken to Gorkha media by fraud from the cooperative. Similarly, it is mentioned in the indictment that through Lamichhane's single signature, 485.8 million 22 thousand was paid to different places through 814 checks of Gorkha Media.

According to the indictment, Lamichhane has taken 2.7 million in addition to his salary, besides giving the money that came from the cooperative to Gorkha Media to others. 59 lakh 38 thousand was paid to wife Nikita Paudel and 81 lakh 25 thousand to Gopikrishna Movies. Even before Gorkha became an official person of the media and even after separation, some checks were found to have been transacted with Lamichhane's signature.

Lamichhane, who left Gorkha Media on June 1, 2079, had announced the party on June 7, five days after announcing the RSWP along with the campaign of good governance, on June 12, he cut a check of 71 lakhs from the account of Gorkha Media and out of that, he cut a check of 985 thousand 749 in his own name.

When Lamichhane was the Managing Director, Gorkha Media received 678.77 million 70 thousand 22 rupees from various cooperatives in the indictment. It is mentioned that Rs 60 lakh 19 thousand was paid elsewhere from 6 checks jointly signed by Chairman GB Rai and Lamichhane.

There is an accusation that GB Rai ran the TV by operating a cooperative with the intention of cheating and was supported by Lamichhane and others. "It appears that these defendants, Ravi Lamichhane, Gitendrababu Rai alias GB Rai, operated Gorkha Media with the intention of defrauding the cooperative's savings, while being the shareholder and managing director of the Pvt.

The victim saver of Sahara Chitwan Cooperative lodged a complaint with the Chitwan Police on October 9, 2080 saying that he was cheated by not getting his savings back. As the police investigation is too slow, the victims have formed a struggle committee and have been running a pressure campaign.

Lamichhane entered Gorkha Media as a shareholder in Chait 2077 and separated on 2 June 2079, but it is mentioned in the indictment that he signed some checks before becoming an official person of Gorkha Media and even after separating from the company.

In the case of Lamichhane, the amount illegally transferred from the cooperative to the company was found to be fraudulent. "Those who have directly taken the funds of the cooperative and are connected to other companies besides the one to which the funds went from the cooperative, have only been charged with organized crime and fraud," said government lawyer Shanti Prasad Luintel.

Chitwan Court Information Officer Amrit Vishwakarma said that a case has been filed against 32 people in the Sahara Chitwan Multipurpose Cooperative fraud, including Lamichhane. Twelve of the 32 have been charged with cooperative fraud and organized crime. A case has been filed against 20 people, including Lamichhane, only for cooperative fraud.

A case has been filed against Lamichhane for misappropriation of funds that went to Gorkha Media Network. A case has been filed against GB Rai, Netrapani Bastola, Sagar KC, Hemant Adhikari, Ashish Anand, Anantababu Rai, Bhupendra Rai, Devendrababu Rai, Dinesh Roka, Kumar Ramtel, Chabilal Joshi and Deepak Lama for fraud and organized crime. Along with Lamichhane, Pragati Shrestha, Vigyan Rai, Laxmiprasad Paudel, Shiv Bahadur Gurung alias Mahendra Bhote, Chatramani Bhattarai, Bir Bahadur Ranabhat, Tirtharaj Lamichhane, Manoj Gurung, Deepa Neupane, Shivprasad Acharya, Than Bahadur Budhamgar alias Thaman and Sharan Bishwakarma have been filed for fraud only. A case has also been filed against Raveena Rimal, Vishal Tamang, Naveen Achami, Kavita Tamang, Ashraf Ali and Bhagwati Bamjan only for cheating. Bigo demand has been made that four people should bear the collective responsibility of Rs. "There is a demand from four people, including Gitendrababu (GB) Rai, Chabilal Joshi, Lakshmi Prasad Paudel, Ravi Lamichhane, who will be collectively liable," said government lawyer Luintel. He also said that he demanded to be punished according to sub-section 3 (c) of section 249 of the Civil Code 2074. "This means imprisonment for up to seven years and a fine of 70,000 rupees," he said.

Along with Lamichhane, Chabilal Joshi, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Ravina Rimal, Vishal Tamang, Naveen Achami, Kavita Tamang, Deepak Lama, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Bhagwati Bamjan, Lakshmi Prasad Paudel, Vigyan Rai, Netramani Bastola, Shiv Bahadur Gurung and Pragathi Shrestha were added after supplementary research.

There are 6,334 savers in Sahara Cooperative. After investigation based on the complaints of 446 victim savers who filed complaints last year, when a case was filed last October, it was found that 376 million 65 million 84 thousand 546 rupees should be paid to the complainant. Additional depositors who filed supplementary complaints have demanded to get back 43 lakh 94 thousand 631 rupees.