Attorney General Savita Bhandari has been found to have pressured the district court to make a decision on the amendment of the indictment of 50 people, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) President Rabi Lamichhane and GB Rai, in a case related to money laundering and organized crime, even though the case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Bhandari had decided on 2002 Poush 30 to amend the charge sheet so that the claims of 'organized crime' and 'wealth laundering' in the cases filed against Lamichhane in Kaski, Kathmandu, Rupandehi and Parsa district courts would no longer stand. The Attorney General amended the decision on Magh 2.

Initially, Attorney General Bhandari had approved the amendment of the charge sheet only in the case of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) President Lamichhane, but two days later, she decided to allow the amendment of the charge sheet in two charges in the case of all the defendants associated with Gorkha Media. The Attorney General's decision resulted in a wide-ranging controversy after 50 people, including the main accused GB Rai, who is absconding, were acquitted in the cooperative fraud case. Writs against the decision began to be filed in the Supreme Court on the 2nd itself.

The writ petition filed in the Supreme Court by senior advocates Dinesh Tripathi, Yubaraj Safal and others was registered on Magh 4 (Sunday). After the writ was registered in the Supreme Court, the Attorney General hastily pressured the District Government Attorney's Offices to submit a petition for amendment of the charge sheet to the District Court. The government side filed a petition for withdrawal of the charge sheet in the Rupandehi District Court. The filing was also scheduled for Poush 6 in the District Court. The Supreme Court held the first hearing on the same day and issued a cause order and called for discussion.

The Attorney General tried to have the case heard and withdrawn by the court before the Supreme Court's order, but the District Court did not accept it. The bench of District Court Rupandehi Judge Shyamlal Ghimire, without even ordering the other party to be summoned, ruled that the writ was pending in the Supreme Court and that the hearing would not be held until the interim order on the writ was finalized.

Judge Ghimire said that a writ petition in the same dispute is pending in the Supreme Court and that no order can be made when a written reply has been called for discussion. With this order, the decision to withdraw the case of 50 defendants including Lamichhane was sent to the Supreme Court. District Court Rupandehi Tehsildar Krishna Prasad Paudal informed that the order has been issued to submit the case for hearing only after the writ petition pending in the Supreme Court is finalized. He said that the hearing process will proceed only after the decision is taken in the three writ petitions pending in the Supreme Court.

The second hearing was scheduled for Magh 20 in the Supreme Court. The hearing was held in the bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Bal Krishna Dhakal. But the hearing was postponed after Justice Dhakal said that he could not see it. Then the next hearing was scheduled for Magh 20. On that day, a bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Shrikant Poudel ordered the submission of the original file along with any additional evidence found to amend the charge sheet in accordance with Section 36 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

A case was filed in the Rupandehi District Court against 22 people, including Lamichhane, for embezzling funds from the Supreme Savings and Loan Cooperative. They were charged with fraud and organized crime. The District Attorney's Office claimed an additional amount of Rs 550 million from 28 people, including GB Rai and Ravi Lamichhane, and an additional amount of Rs 109.9 million from Ravi, Chhabilal Joshi and Laxmi Prasad Poudel, and an individual amount of Rs 20 million from Ravi. Imprisonment was demanded for both these charges. Now, the Attorney General's Office has filed an application in the District Court to amend the charges in the organized crime case against all of them.

Petitions not filed in other courts after Rupandehi order

Amid pressure from the Attorney General, the Rupandehi District Court has been found to have ‘held’ petitions in other district courts after it directed the Supreme Court not to amend the charge sheet.  The Attorney General’s Office has stated that it was held after it saw that a similar order could be made in Kathmandu, Parsa and Kaski as well.  The Supreme Court had ample grounds to block the decision to amend the charge sheet as wrong and if the Supreme Court blocks the Attorney General’s decision, the amended charge sheet would have to be reinstated, so the district would not issue any order until the hearing.

A District Government Attorney’s Office chief said that since the petition was pending in the Supreme Court in the same dispute, nothing would be done if it was filed.  ‘Since there is no justification for us to take the initiative while the dispute is pending in the Supreme Court, nothing has happened on this issue now.  That is, it is on hold and waiting and watching,' the government lawyer said, 'We will proceed according to whatever the Supreme Court gives.'

The case of these defendants, including GB Rai, was being withdrawn

The original charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet were registered against Lamichhane, Chhabilal Joshi and Jivi Rai in the Kaski, Rupandehi, Chitwan, Parsa and Kathmandu District Courts for misappropriation of cooperative funds in Gorkha Media. Earlier, a supplementary charge sheet was filed in the court where the case was filed including embezzlement of cooperative funds.

However, the Attorney General had decided to approve the amendment of the charge sheet in the organized crime and money laundering cases related to cooperatives in which Lamichhane and others are defendants in Kaski, Rupandehi, Parsa and Kathmandu. For that, she had taken the basis of the application registered with the Attorney General's Office on behalf of Lamichhane.

Three charges were filed against 44 people in a supplementary charge sheet for embezzlement of funds from the Surya Darshan Cooperative in Kaski. All of them would have been charged with money laundering and organized crime.

The charges to be amended in this way include Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) President Lamichhane, former DIG Chhabilal Joshi, Leela Pachai, former chairman of the cooperative Gitendra Babu (GB Rai), his brother Bhupendra Rai, current chairman Than Bahadur Budha, vice-chairman of the board of directors Kailash Kumar Darlami, secretary Dhiraj Kumar Das, treasurer Kumar Ramtel, members Hemanta Adhikari, Kabita Tamang and Pramod Bhattarai. The charge sheet against former secretaries of the cooperative Anuj Nakarmi and Suraj Shrestha, board members Shiva Bahadur Gurung, Bhavishwar Aryal and Aisma Gurung, coordinator of the accounts committee Sagar KC, members Dinesh Roka and Lalita Tamang, accounts officer Shristi Manandhar, and loan officer Buddhi Gurung would have been amended .

The charge sheet of 39 people registered in the case of fraud in Kathmandu's Swarnalakshmi Cooperative was on the list to be amended. Along with Lamichhane, GB Rai, Chhabilal Joshi, Swarnalakshmi Cooperative Vice President Devendra Babu Rai, Treasurer Kumar Ramtel, Secretary Iran Lama, Joint Secretary Kavita Lama, members Hemanta Adhikari and Rabina Rimal, former Debt Sub-Committee member Suraj Shrestha, former Treasurer Mira Bamjan, former Joint Secretary Maya Rai and former Manager Navin Achhami will also have their charges amended. Similarly, former directors Deepak Lama, Sabina Alemagar, Bhakta Bahadur Bholan, Yam Kumar Nalbo, Raju Baral, Punam Kumar Chalise, Pradeep Lama, Savita Lama, Ganeshraj Shrestha, Sunita Newa, Shantikumari Subedi, Roman Kafle, Kamal Lama, former Debt Sub-Committee member Raju Baral were also on the list to be amended.

In the case of Sano Paila Cooperative of Parsa, a case was registered against 29 people, including Lamichhane, in the charge sheet of organized crime and cooperative fraud. The charge sheet of the Sano Paila Cooperative of Parsa, which was last registered on 29 Jestha, is also on the list of amendments. The Sano Paila Cooperative is accused of embezzling a total of 2.3 billion 1.4 million 29 thousand 8 hundred and 11 paisa. In the case of Lamichhane, the amount to be paid to the cooperative is 57 million 430 thousand 333 rupees 33 paisa. They have been demanded to be punished according to the Cooperative Act, 2074 and the Prevention of Organized Crime Act, 2070.