Police to pursue organized crime case against Lamichhane

KATHMANDU, Sept 23: The Nepal Police has started the procedure to implicate the Chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) under an organized crime case after receiving directions from the Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak on Sunday to take action based on the recently published report from the parliamentary probe committee on the misuse of cooperative savings fund.

According to a highly-placed source in the Nepal Police Headquarters, the police are exploring the feasibility of arresting former Minister for Home Affairs Lamichhane under the purview of Organized Crime Prevention Act 2070 after the report of the probe committee failed to directly implicate him in a cooperative scam case under the Cooperative Act 2074. 

“Since the probe report deduced that Lamichhane was not been directly involved in the operation of the cooperatives linked with Gorkha Media, it would be difficult to obtain an arrest warrant under a cooperative scam case,” the source told Republica, “It is more likely that the court would issue an arrest warrant against him if his involvement in the scam is investigated as an organized crime.” 

Earlier on Sunday, a team of officials from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) arrested former director of Gorkha Media Network Chhabilal Joshi from Kathmandu in a cooperative scam case for embezzling money from Surya Darshan Cooperative, Pokhara. The police are transporting former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police Joshi to Pokhara where the case against him has been registered. As per an official in the MPCD, the Kathmandu District Court denied the police an arrest warrant against Lamichhane for the alleged involvement in cooperative scam.

Another source in the headquarters, however, clarified that Lamichhane will be tried for four crimes including a cooperative scam case nonetheless. “Unlike in the case of Joshi, the court did not issue an arrest warrant against Lamichhane under a cooperative scam case since he was not found to be directly involved in the operation of the cooperative,” the source told Republica, “However, if he is arrested under any of the four charges against him, he will be interrogated for all four crimes.”

According to the spokesperson for Nepal Police DIG Dan Bahadur Karki, the police will probe Lamichhane in all the cases that the home ministry instructs the police to investigate. “No case is easy for the police,” he told Republica, referring to the difficulty in ascertaining Lamichhane’s involvement in cooperative scam, “We will investigate Lamichhane under all counts that the ministry directs us to investigate.”

Following the last cabinet meeting’s decision to send the parliamentary probe report to the home ministry for action, instructions have been given to the Nepal Police Headquarters in Naxal for further investigation. The probe committee had recommended action against Lamichhane for misappropriating funds after they found him guilty as a shareholder and managing director of Gorkha Media, even though no documents confirmed his involvement in the money flow from cooperatives while he was the managing director of Gorkha Media Network.