Ravi’s detention in cooperatives fraud case extended by another 15 days

The District Court, Kaski, has granted permission to remand former Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane for another 15 days. On Sunday, the bench of Judge Himalal Belwase granted 15 days permission to four people who were detained for the same crime, including Lamichhane, who is also the president of Rastriya Swotantra Party. Along with Lamichhane, another operator of Gorkha Media Network, former DIG Chabilal Joshi, Leela Pachai and Ram Bahadur Khanal, who were arrested for the same offence, have been extended for 15 days in custody. Lamichhane was arrested on October 18 from the central office of RSVP and brought to Kaski. Initially 6 days, then 7 days, 10 days and 13 days were extended for the investigation on him, and after the investigation, this time the deadline was extended for another 15 days.

Government lawyers and legal professionals for the victims argued that the process of investigation is ongoing, there is still work to be done to understand the facts and evidence, and various documents have arrived, so the deadline should be extended. Lamichhane’s lawyers reiterated that there is no evidence to extend Lamichhane’s term without evidence.

A maximum of 24 days can be detained in case of co-operative fraud and government fraud. But he is also accused of being involved in organized crime. In such case there is a provision for detention for up to 60 days.

Arrest warrants have also been issued against him in Rupandehi and Kathmandu districts for his involvement in multiple cooperative frauds.

The district court, Rupandehi has issued arrest warrants against 10 people including Lamichhane on charges of embezzlement of Supreme Cooperative funds based in Butwal. The Kathmandu District Court has issued an arrest warrant against Lamichhane for misappropriating the funds of Kalimati-based Swarnalakshmi Multi-Purpose Cooperative.