Lamichhane accepts signing checks for Gorkha Media Network in a statement to police
KATHMANDU, Jan 6: The District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu registered a case against 39 individuals including Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chairman Rabi Lamichhane, absconding fugitive Gitendra Bahadur (GB) Rai and former DIG of police Chhabilal Joshi, at the Kathmandu District Court on Sunday for their alleged involvement in the embezzlement of depositors’ savings from Kathmandu-based Swarnalaxmi Cooperative.
According to the charge sheet filed by the DGAO based on the investigation by the District Police Range (DPR), Kathmandu, the attorney’s office has sought to recover Rs 1.19 billion from the defendants that they misappropriated from the cooperative. Of the sum, the DGAO has sought to recover Rs 50.8 million from former home minister Lamichhane and Rs 57.8 million from former DIG Joshi. Of the 39 defendants named in the case, currently 33 individuals including GB Rai are absconding.
The DGAO has accused Lamichhane of embezzling funds from the cooperative while serving as the director and managing director of Gorkha Media Network (GMN). According to the charge sheet, Lamichhane was a director of Gorkha Media Network holding 180,000 shares of the company. Police investigation has concluded that the board of directors of GMN made Lamichhane a shareholder of the company with 16% shares on April 2, 2021.
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In the statement given to the police, Lamichhane has stated that he signed multiple blank checks for GMN. “On the basis of reasonable trust in the directors, I signed multiple blank checks for GMN,” his statement to the police read.
As per the charge sheet, Lamichhane signed checks on behalf of GMN to pay the loans taken from Swarnalaxmi Cooperative. This contradicts his statement given to the District Police Office (DPO), Kaski, in the Suryadarshan Cooperative scam whereby he had claimed that he had no knowledge of money transferred to GMN’s bank accounts from or to the cooperative.
The DGAO has accused Lamichhane of having the knowledge of GMN’s loan from Swarnalaxmi as he signed the checks to pay off the loan. The charge sheet states that Rs 26.5 million was received from Swarnalaxmi Cooperative in GMN’s account at Global IME Bank (00401010000577) and Rs 24 million was deposited in the cooperative, and that Lamichhane signed 16 checks for a total of Rs 9 million in the name of Swarnalakshmi from GMN's account at Global IME Bank.
The charge sheet has also alleged that Lamichhane signed a total of 820 checks from GMN’s account at Global IME Bank for a total of Rs 491 million between November 19, 2020 to July 24, 2022. Since the amount was funneled into GMN from various cooperatives and Lamichhane had the knowledge of settlement of loans from Swarnalaxmi Cooperative, the police investigation has accused of intentionally misappropriating the funds from the cooperatives.
In total, the trio of Lamichhane, Joshi and Rai have been found to have signed a total of 1237 checks from GMN’s account at Global IME Bank from September 13, 2020 to February 14, 2024, releasing more than Rs 594 million. Police investigation also concluded that they also signed several checks from GMN’s account at Siddhartha Bank (00115978097) from September 8, 2020 to September 2, 2022, releasing more than Rs 21.9 million.
The charge sheet has also speculated Lamichhane’s connection with the cooperative by exposing two vehicle loans that he took from the financial institution. According to the DGAO, Lamichhane borrowed Rs 3.221 million to buy a vehicle on August 20, 2021 and Rs 4.6 million to buy a van on November 17, 2021 from the cooperative through a loan account (number 001-001-0004379), jointly owned with GB Rai at the cooperative.
