Cases have been filed in three courts on Thursday against the directors of Shankar Group, Infinity Holdings and Himalayan Re-Insurance, among others, on charges of financial fraud. Cases have been filed against 81 people in the Kathmandu District Court for securities offences and 42 for insurance offences. Cases have been filed against 39 people in the Special Court for money laundering offences and four people in the Patan High Court for banking offences. 

Cases have been filed against Shankar Group Chairman Shankarlal Agrawal and Vice-Chairmen Sulabh and Sahil Agrawal and Infinity Holdings Chairman Deepak Bhatt for all four offences. The District Attorney's Office has filed the case, claiming a loss of Rs 3.73 billion 8.52 billion 24 thousand 227 for offences under the Insurance Act and Rs 1.14 billion 8.69 billion 9 thousand 900 for offences under the Securities Act.

A case has been registered in the Special Court against 39 people, including Deepak Bhatt and Shulav Agrawal, in a money laundering case filed in the Special Court. As per Sub-section 1 of Section 30 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2064, a demand of Rs 26.63 billion 27.71 million 59 thousand 68 paisa has been made against Bhatt, Rs 25.59 billion 20.6 thousand 124 thousand 31 paisa has been made against Agrawal, and Rs 520 million has been made against Shekhar Golchha. Out of the total 39 defendants, there are 34 individuals and 5 companies. The defendants have been re-indicted in various cases, due to which the total number of defendants is 86.

Case filed against Deepak Bhatta, Shankarlal, Sulabh and Sahil Agrawal

Golchha Group Chairman and Managing Director Shekhar Golchha, Lucky Group Managing Director Amit Mor, Ramesh Corp Vice Chairman Rohit Gupta, Jawalakhel Group of Industries Managing Director Raj Bahadur Shah have been made defendants in the case for offences under the Insurance Act and the Securities Act. Cases have also been filed against Ashish Shrestha, Siddhant Jhunjhunwala, Latika Golyan, Sumer Shamsher Jabra, Shalini Sanghai, Sandeep Chachan Agrawal, Shubhi Agrawal and others. Nicholas Pandey, Saurabh Dugad, Digambar Jha, Nitesh Malpani, Jyoti Prakash Pandey and others have been made defendants in the case for offences related to securities.  According to related sources, in the last Sawant (the beginning of the current financial year), Golchha Group Chairman and Managing Director Golchha, Ramesh Corp Vice Chairman Gupta, Jawalakhel Group of Industries Managing Director Shah, Infinity Holdings Chairman Bhatta and Lucky Group Managing Director Mor had agreed to conduct a collective share transaction with commercial purposes. As per the agreement, everyone had raised money and also collected money in a single account through the banking system.

Some shares were purchased from the same fund. The Money Laundering Investigation Department had started an investigation alleging that Bhatta had illegally embezzled Rs 3.73 billion 85 lakh 24 thousand 226 from the public in listed companies including Himalayan Re-Insurance, Himalayan Securities Banker, HLI Large Cap Fund and Nepal Micro Insurance. After the formation of the new government after the Gen-G movement, the regulatory bodies had started the investigation. The bank accounts of both Bhatta and Sulabh Agarwal were frozen immediately after the Gen-G movement, and they are still frozen.

The department says that Bhatta and his group committed illegal activities related to money laundering by embezzling money from a listed company. The department also sent letters to the Insurance Authority, Securities Board, NEPSE, CDSC and other agencies, requesting details of Bhatta's share transactions. Kantipur had obtained some of the letters sent by the department to these agencies. The department analyzed and verified information and data received from the Rastra Bank, Securities Board, Insurance Authority, NEPSE, CDSC and other agencies, and took statements from stakeholders.

Visa recommendation for 10 foreigners from the Ministry of Education based on fake documents

Immediately after the formation of the government led by Balendra Shah on 13 Chaitra, the Money Laundering Investigation Department and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police intensified the investigation against the business group for money laundering, insurance, securities and banking crimes. Bhatta was arrested on 19 Chaitra and Sulabh on 21 Chaitra during the investigation.

Shankar, the chairman of the Shankar Group, who was arrested on 20 Chaitra, was released on bail after 2 days. Shekhar Golchha, the former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the then chairman of Himalayan Re-Insurance, was arrested on 10 Baisakh. He was also released on bail while the investigation was ongoing. Bhatta and Sulabh are in custody. After the investigation was completed, the District and Special Public Prosecutor's Office filed a case, putting the others on the absconding list.

The charge sheet filed in the court has shown Bhatta and three directors of the Shankar Group as the main accused. The charge sheet states that their involvement in games ranging from influencing the securities market to laundering assets acquired through illegal means and systematically influencing the market through reinsurance and microinsurance companies has been confirmed.

Bank loan in one name, investment in another

According to the charge sheet filed in the Patan High Court, it was found that the loan disbursed by Nepal Investment Mega Bank with the participation of other banks was withdrawn from the account held by Jagdamba Steels in the investment and used as collateral for land purchase. After that, the National Bank wrote a letter to the department to investigate. 

It was found that a ‘working capital loan’ was disbursed instead of a ‘term loan’ and ‘bridge gap loan’ for land purchase purposes. It was found that Jagdamba had unnaturally deposited Rs 450 million in Deepak Bhatt’s account on 17, 19 and 20 Asoj 2079. The charge sheet demands that Deepak Bhatta, Sulabh Agrawal and Shahil Agrawal be fined and sentenced to imprisonment for the offence of ‘committing an offence prohibited by the Banking Offences and Punishments Act’ and that Shankarlal Agrawal be punished as an accessory for indirectly aiding and abetting Bhatta, Sulabh and Shahil in the misuse. *