KATHMANDU: Sep 5 – The Patan High Court has ordered the withdrawal of the report of the Parliamentary Cooperative Investigation Committee in the case involving Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chairman Rabi Lamichhane, who is in custody on charges of embezzlement of the savings of various cooperatives.
A division bench of Justices Arjun Prasad Koirala and Kavi Prasad Neupane on Friday asked the Office of the Government Attorney to bring a copy of the report submitted by the parliamentary committee regarding the embezzlement of cooperative funds during the next hearing.
Rabi had been released by the Kathmandu District Court on bail of Rs 6 million in the Swarnalakshmi Cooperative fraud case. He had approached the High Court, Patan, arguing that the bail amount was exorbitantly high and that he should be released on a general date.
Meanwhile, the government attorney also filed a petition against the District Court’s order, claiming it was erroneous to allow Ravi’s release at that bail amount. The High Court has heard both petitions together.
The court has also inquired whether any similar appeals have been filed regarding other defendants who were released by the District Court in this case.
The order states: “Regarding other defendants in this case—Pradeep Lama, Kiran Pudasaini, Virbahadur Ranabhat, Shantikumar Suvedi, Shiv Prasad Paudel, Kalyankumar Ghimire, Raju Baral, Roman Kafle, Pushparaj Paudel, Kumar Ramtel—has any petition under Section 73 of the Criminal Code Act, 2017, been filed in this court? The relevant branch should check the records and report accordingly.