KATHMANDU: The Nepal Police has initiated steps to implicate Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Rabi Lamichhane under an organized crime case. This follows directions from Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak, who instructed action based on a parliamentary probe committee report concerning the misuse of cooperative savings funds.

According to sources at the Nepal Police Headquarters, Lamichhane may be arrested in accordance with the Organized Crime Prevention Act of 2070. This is a result of the parliamentary investigative report's inability to establish a clear connection between Lamichhane and a cooperative fraud as defined by the Cooperative Act 2074, which made it difficult to obtain an arrest warrant on those grounds.

The probe report did not find evidence that Lamichhane was directly involved in the operation of cooperatives connected to Gorkha Media. However, police believe that an arrest might be more feasible if the case is treated as an organized crime rather than a cooperative scam.

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) detained Chhabilal Joshi, a former director of Gorkha Media Network, on the same day because they suspected him of being involved in a cooperative scam involving the Surya Darshan Cooperative in Pokhara. The complaint is registered in Pokhara, where Joshi, a former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, is being moved.

Unlike Joshi, Lamichhane’s arrest warrant was denied by the Kathmandu District Court in connection with the cooperative scam. The court found no direct evidence of his involvement in the operations of the cooperative, complicating efforts to prosecute him under that case.

Despite this, another source clarified that Lamichhane is still facing charges in four different cases, including the cooperative scam. If arrested under any of these charges, he will be interrogated for all four alleged crimes.

DIG Dan Bahadur Karki, the spokesperson for Nepal Police, emphasized that the police will investigate all charges against Lamichhane, as directed by the home ministry. He acknowledged the difficulty in proving Lamichhane’s involvement in the cooperative scam but asserted that the police would follow through on all instructions.

The home ministry’s directive to the police follows a cabinet decision to act on the parliamentary probe committee’s findings. The committee had recommended action against Lamichhane for fund misappropriation due to his role as a shareholder and managing director of Gorkha Media, even though no clear evidence tied him to the cooperative's financial operations during his tenure.

Lamichhane's future legal challenges will likely hinge on whether his actions can be framed within the scope of organized crime, allowing for further investigation and potential prosecution under that framework.