Rabi Lamichhane under police custody, supporters demonstrate
By Our Reporter
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president and former deputy prime minister and minister for home affairs Rabi Lamichhane has been in police custody on the charges of cooperative fraud and organised crime.
A team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) led by CIB’s Superintend of Police Hobindra Bogati arrested him from his party office in Banasthali of Kathmandu-16 on Friday evening and took him to Pokhara via roadway the same evening as the case was filed in Kaski District Police Office. Dozens of RSP leaders and supporters also travelled to Kaski the same evening and hundreds others reached Pokhara the next day.
They have been demonstrating in Pokhara since Saturday while the victims of the cooperative frauds have also staging demonstration.
The supporters of Rabi have been chanting slogans against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and NC leader Gagan Kumar Thapa. Almost all lawmakers of the party and supporters from across the country are now in Pokhara demanding that Rabi should be freed as he was innocent.
However, for onlookers, the scenes look unusual: A mass demonstrating when a suspect of cooperative fraud is held for investigation.
Moreover, the supporters are spiting venom through social sites against the leaders of other parties instead of allowing the police and court to decide the case independently.
Earlier on Friday, the Kaski District Court permitted the police to arrest Lamichhane. The bench also allowed the police to arrest 13 others—Bishal Tamang, Nabin Achhami, Rabina Rimal, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Dipak Lama, Ananta Babu Rai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Devendra Babu Rai, Bigyan Rai, Om Prakash Gurung, Bir Bahadur Ranabhat, Deepa Neupane and Kalpana Kumari Shrestha–in connection with the same charges.
A parliamentary special probe committee was formed in May to investigate the crisis-ridden cooperatives. The committee’s report concluded that Lamichhane was involved in misusing millions of rupees funneled into Gorkha Media Network from various cooperatives when he was the managing director of the now-defunct media company that ran Galaxy 4K Television before Lamichhane joined politics. The report also holds several others responsible for the cooperative fraud.
The committee’s report recommended action against Lamichhane and several others, as per the law.
The report has said over Rs. 63 billion was embezzled by cooperative owners from various crisis-ridden cooperatives across the country. It has recommended prosecuting four individuals, including Lamichhane, the then managing director of Gorkha Media Network; chairman Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai; board member Kumar Ramtel; and initial founder of the company Chhabi Lal Joshi.
Joshi, a former deputy inspector general of Nepal Police, was arrested in Kathmandu a month ago and was taken to Pokhara. Now Joshi is taken to Butwal.
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