Parliamentary Committee finds Gorkha Media misappropriated NPR 650 million, recommends action also against Ravi Lamichhane

A parliamentary special investigation committee has concluded that Gorkha Media misappropriated NPR 650 million from five cooperatives, including Suryadarshan. The committee also recommended legal action against Ravi Lamichhane, the former Managing Director of Gorkha Media, as per the prevalent laws.

On Monday, committee chairperson Surya Thapa presented the report during a session of the House of Representatives. Following this, Speaker Devraj Ghimire instructed the Secretariat to send the report to the government for action.

The issue of cooperative fraud was initially raised by the Nepali Congress in late February 2024 after Lamichhane became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs in the Prachanda-led government.D

Congress accused him of being involved in the misappropriation of cooperative funds and claimed that the police investigation had been halted once he took office. These allegations led to repeated disruptions in  the Parliament, resulting in the formation of a parliamentary investigation committee on May 28, 2024.

The committee was tasked with investigating the misuse of funds from cooperatives declared "problamatic," including Suryadarshan, Sahara, Swarnalaxmi, and Supreme, which were managed by the JB Rai group. Chairperson Thapa stated that the report was based on a financial analysis of 40 cooperatives, and it provided eight specific recommendations regarding the misappropriation by Gorkha Media.

Sources revealed that transactions totaling NPR 2.56 billion were conducted between Gorkha Media and five of the seven cooperatives managed by the JB Rai group. Of this amount, NPR 650 million in cooperative funds were found to have been misused by Gorkha Media.

Committee member Shishir Khanal noted that there was no direct evidence linking Lamichhane to the transfer of cooperative funds to Gorkha Media.  However, Khanal admitted hat as Managing Director, Lamichhane should be accountable for the unlawful spending of these funds by Gorkha Media.

During Lamichhane's 14-month tenure as Managing Director, all but one of the cheques related to these transactions had his signature. Based on this, the committee concluded that Lamichhane was indeed involved in the misappropriation of cooperative funds through Gorkha Media.

As per Section 122 (t) of the Cooperative Act, anyone found to be guilty of embezzling the fund of any cooperative, could face a sentence of one to ten years in prison, depending on the extent of the financial loss.