The Kaski District Court has dismissed the charges of organized crime and money laundering filed against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) President Ravi Lamichhane, absconding accused Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai and former DIG Chhabilal Joshi in the Surya Darshan Cooperative savings fraud case. The bench of District Judge Him Lal Belbase issued an order to amend the charge sheet and made arrangements to maintain only the charge sheet of cooperative fraud against them.

The District Government Attorney's Office, Kaski, had filed a petition seeking amendment of the charge sheet as per Section 36 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 2074 BS, as directed by the Attorney General's Office. The bench upheld the same on Friday. ‘With this court order, only the charge of cooperative fraud against about 50 defendants, including RSP President Lamichhane, will remain,’ said District Court Registrar Rajan Khanal. ‘The charges of organized crime and money laundering will be dropped.’

The then Attorney General Savita Bhandari had decided to amend the charge sheet in Lamichhane’s case on 10th December. Then, stating that there was an error, on 2nd January, she allowed the amendment of the charge sheet in the case of all defendants, including GB Rai. Based on the same directive, the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kaski, had filed an application in the District Court on 8th January. However, on 4th February, the bench of District Judge Nitij Rai had ordered not to proceed with the immediate withdrawal process as a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court against the decision to amend the case from the Attorney General’s Office.

Gorkha Media owner Ram Bahadur Khanal had approached the Pokhara High Court demanding that the Attorney General's decision to withdraw the case be upheld, arguing that the district court's order was null and void. Hearing his writ petition, a joint bench of Chief Justice Ratna Bahadur Bagchand and Justice Marina Shrestha quashed the district court's order on 31 Baisakh, concluding that it was null and void. The hearing was held in the district court after the order.

Two petitions were filed in three separate cases filed against GB Rai and Chhabilal Joshi, among others, as defendants. The petition was argued on Friday by the Nepal government's High Government Attorney's Office Pokhara's Joint Attorney Rudra Prasad Panthi, Deputy Attorney Swatantra Neupane, and District Attorney Kamala Kafle, Assistant District Attorneys Sujata Poudel and Deepak Aryal. Senior advocate Rohit Raj Bastola and advocates Priti Pandey and Ramesh Giri argued on behalf of the defendant.

The court presented four solid grounds while making the order. ‘The main theme of the justice of the presented case is to get the savings of the victim and the complainant easily and quickly back, the government did not claim the issue of amendment when filing the initial charge sheet, and the complainants did not have any demand in that regard,’ the order said. ‘Even after the amendment, it is seen that the cooperative fraud charge as demanded in the complaint filed by the complainants will remain.’ If the application is not amended as demanded, the process for reaching a settlement between the complainant and the defendant and getting the complainant’s amount back will become more complicated.’

The court said that the main essence of justice will not be defeated even if the claims of organized crime and money laundering are removed. The order states, ‘Since there is no malice in the intention of the prosecutor and the sensitivity towards the rights of both parties, including the complainant and the accused, the petitioner’s request and demand are reasonable, the original additional and supplementary charge sheets related to the submitted petition have been amended to maintain the charge of cooperative fraud and not to maintain the charge sheets of other organized crimes and money laundering.’

This case was filed on the charge of fraud by the officials of Surya Darshan Cooperative in Tersapatti, Pokhara. Initially, the original charge sheet of cooperative fraud was filed, but later additional and supplementary charge sheets of organized crimes and money laundering were also filed. In the case of misappropriation of savings of Surya Darshan Cooperative in Pokhara, a case was first filed on 18 Asho 2080, making 19 people including GB Rai as defendants (at that time, Lamichhane’s name was not among the defendants). Later, on 7 Poush 2081, a supplementary case of organized crime and money laundering was added against Lamichhane and Joshi.

The court has ordered that this amendment order be considered an integral part of the original, additional and supplementary charge sheets related to the case and be carried out as per the rules by attaching the file. Registrar of Kaski District Court Khanal informed that the legal process of the case will proceed with the court order. ‘As requested by the Government Attorney’s Office, this order has been issued by the court to amend the charge sheet by maintaining only the charge sheet of cooperative fraud and removing the claims of other organized crimes and money laundering, so the remaining legal proceedings of the case will now proceed on the basis of the amended charge sheet,’ he said.

Kiran Shrestha, coordinator of Suryadarshan Savings Victims’ Struggle Committee, says that the court has considered the return of the depositors’ money as the main priority, and if the victim works accordingly, he will get relief. ‘We are hopeful that if the case is amended in accordance with the purpose for which it was amended, we will get relief,’ he said, ‘but if the aim is only to amend the case without providing justice to the victim, the results will be seen soon.’

Withdrawal of Ravi Lamichhane’s case of organized crime and money laundering

The decision of the then Attorney General Bhandari to withdraw the case had caused political and legal controversy. Various parties have been alleging that this decision was made under political pressure. After the decision of the then Attorney General became controversial, Dinesh Tripathi, Yubaraj Poudel (Successful) and others filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on 4th Magh. The petitioner had sought the court’s intervention, claiming that the decision to withdraw the case was not legal and that it interfered with the judicial process. The writ petition argues that the Attorney General’s decision to unilaterally withdraw a serious case like organized crime and money laundering is against the spirit of the constitution and law. It has also been said that it is not fair to withdraw only one of the cases as the main case of cooperative fraud and the organized crime and money laundering cases are interrelated. The petition has demanded that the decision of the Attorney General be quashed as it is arbitrary and against the law. The writ is pending in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the Rupandehi District Court had also issued an order that the case cannot be amended as the writ is pending in the Supreme Court. For that reason, the process of withdrawing the organized crime and money laundering cases against Lamichhane in Rupandehi has been stopped. Prakash Marasini, District Attorney (Chief) of the Government Attorney's Office, Rupandehi, said that the further process has not progressed because the Rupandehi District Court had ordered that the order should be implemented only after the order from the Supreme Court. According to him, the organized crime and money laundering cases against Lamichhane in Rupandehi remain unchanged.