Baglung District Court orders judicial custody for Dhorpatan Mayor Nepali

KATHMANDU, Oct 2: Baglung District Court has ordered Dhorpatan Municipality Mayor Devkumar Nepali to be sent to judicial custody. 

An official at the court, Shiva Prasad Gautam, confirmed to Republica that a single bench of the judge Rameshkanta Adhikari issued the order on Tuesday, sending Mayor Nepali to judicial custody for further investigation.

Gautam also said that Mayor Nepali’s brother Om Bahadur Darji is out on a bail of Rs 1.5 million.

Mayor Nepali, who faces charges of cooperative frauds, had been operating Image Savings and Credit Cooperative in both Pokhara and Baglung as chairman.  Nepali has been accused of misappropriating over Rs 2 billion from depositors in the two districts.

Mayor Nepali who had been on the run since May of last year after the cooperative embezzlement case was filed, was arrested in New Delhi on September 27 and brought to Baglung on Sunday for further investigation.

Nepali has testified that he will return the depositors’ money by selling his personal property.