A case has been filed against 8 people including leader Gurung's ex-wife Jyoti Gurung for their involvement in co-operative fraud.
What you should know
The vice chairman of the ruling Congress and former minister Dhanraj Gurung, who was involved in the Miteri Cooperative fraud case of Lalitpur, has been acquitted and a case has been filed against the remaining eight people.
The District Public Prosecutor's Office of Lalitpur acquitted leader Gurung and filed a case in the district court on Sunday against Gurung's 'ex-wife' Jyoti Gurung and Kumbharaj Gurung, the owner of the cooperative, against seven people for fraud, racketeering, organized crime, illegal trading of immaterial currency and offenses against the Rashtra Bank Act. The case was filed based on the investigation by the Central Investigation Bureau of the police in the
fraud case. The bureau submitted a report to the Public Prosecutor's Office with the opinion that Gurung should not be prosecuted. Based on that, the indictment reached the court after acquitting him.
According to the indictment, Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari, Subhash Khatri, Kumbharaj Gurung, Suresh Adhikari, Arjun Aram (Pritam Adhikari called Pradeep), Vijay Kumar Rai and Arjun Aram along with leader Gurung's ex-wife Jyoti Gurung have been charged Rs. A case has been instituted against Suresh Adhikari with an additional sum of Rs.
Two others, Subas Khatri and Arjun Aram, involved in the co-operative fraud case, have been found to have dealt in illegal dematerialized currency worth 6 billion 74 crore 32 lakh 69 thousand 89 rupees. Similarly, punishment has been demanded for Jyoti Gurung, Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari in Kirte.
Among the accused, all are absconding except Jyoti Bhandari, Subhash Khatri and Suresh Adhikari. Bhandari, who was on the run after defrauding the co-operative, was arrested by the police with the help of Interpol from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and brought to Nepal. Jyoti Gurung is suspected to have escaped to America, but has been put on the fugitive list without further mention.
'Defendants Jyoti Gurung, Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari, Subas Khatri, Arjun Aram, Pritam Adhikari named Pradeep, Vijay Kumar Rai and Kumbharaj Gurung have been demanded punishment for defrauding the cooperative of 140 million 29 lakh 24 thousand 754 92 rupees Another defendant, Suresh Adhikari, has been found guilty for playing the role of Matiar.
Suresh Adhikari has been made a defendant for defrauding another 342 lakh 82 thousand 420 rupees by 'scam' saying that he will return the embezzled amount. Similarly, under the Rashtra Bank Act, a penalty of Rs 1772 lakh 7174 has been imposed for defrauding the co-operative's funds by going outside the banking system and embezzling Rs 3.5 crore through a scam under the guise of returning the defrauded funds. Jyoti Gurung and Jyoti Bhandari, Subas Khatri, Arjun Aram and Pritam Adhikari have also been made defendants in the charge of organized crime. It has also been demanded to pay compensation to the victim for the amount of the fraud.
Miteri Cooperative is an organization opened by the initiative of retired Lahures from the British and Indian Army. Congress leader Gurung's wife Jyoti joined 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 was also revealed from the investigation that he used Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari for the money of the cooperative in the meter badge.
After he became the general manager, Jyoti has also found that Bhandari has repeatedly put the co-operative's money into the meter bank. Bhandari, who was initially paying the amount of the meter badge, later became incommunicado after receiving a large amount of money. Later, it was revealed that the amount was embezzled in collusion between the two. According to sources, Congress leader Gurung was already aware of the fraud. It has also been found that the pattern of embezzlement of funds from cooperatives has continued till 2079.
It seems that Dhanraj broke off his relationship with his wife in 2076 after the issue of the cooperative case reached the board of directors and shareholders. "Questions have arisen" from the public level even regarding divorce. It is also alleged that Gurung may have caused the divorce by being a part of money embezzlement. On 16th December 2076, the co-operative directors had a discussion about the embezzlement of money by bringing together Dhanraj and Jyoti Gurung. However, two months later in February, Jyoti and Dhanraj got divorced.
It has also been found that the amount of embezzlement committed by Jyoti in the cooperative was paid through Dhanraj Gurung. For this reason, the police did not investigate the sources and accounts of around 1 crore rupees taken by Gurung from businessman Min Bahadur Gurung in the name of 'Sapti'. The bureau summoned leader Gurung in the second week of December 2081 and interrogated him in the CIB.
However, Gurung claimed that he was the victim of the conflict in the cooperative because of his wife and he had to divorce. After Jyoti Gurung became the general manager, he was given the management and financial responsibility of the organization. Gurung misused his position and chair and began to embezzle the savings amount of the savers who were supposed to deposit in the cooperative organization for personal gain without depositing it in the organization's account,' Bodhvikram Thapa's complaint said.
In order to find out the truth about the matter immediately, we held an emergency meeting with the official of the organization and the defendant Jyoti Gurung along with her husband Dhanraj Gurung at the building of Nepal Magar Social Service Center, Ranibu at 9 am on 16 Paush 2076. At that time, after Jyoti Gurung verbally admitted his crime, Dhanraj Gurung expressed his commitment to pay as soon as possible after his son, who is studying engineering in Australia, starts earning.' "Shareholder Dhanraj Gurung must be the main hero of misappropriating the funds of the cooperative, also Dhanraj Gurung must have divorced Jyoti Gurung to save his political life/career, misusing his wife's position to use the funds of the cooperative, avoid paying the amount, and to avoid joining the cooperative," the police statement said.
