KATHMANDU: The Kaski District Court has approved a seven-day extension of police custody for Chhabi Lal Joshi, the former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police and director of Gorkha Media, as part of an investigation into a cooperative fraud case involving the Suryadarshan Savings and Cooperative Limited based in Pokhara.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohan Thapa from the District Police Office (DPO), Kaski, confirmed that the court granted permission for this extension. Initially, Joshi had been placed in police custody for five days starting Monday.

The request for additional custody was made by the police as they were unable to complete the recording of Joshi's statement within the initial timeframe. The District Government Attorney's Office had recorded his statement for two and a half hours on Tuesday.

However, the session was interrupted due to Joshi's bronchitis-related health issues. SP Thapa indicated that they had hoped to resume the recording of his statement on Friday, but this did not happen due to his ongoing health concerns.

The investigation was prompted by a directive from the Home Ministry, which emphasized the implementation of recommendations from a Parliamentary Special Committee looking into embezzlement and misuse of funds in cooperative organizations.

Following this directive, police were instructed to take action against individuals implicated in the report, leading to Joshi's arrest on the same day, after which he was flown to Pokhara for further proceedings.