Nepal’s top court upholds former Home Minister Lamichhane judicial custody

KATHMANDU(Nepal):Nepal’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the verdict of judicial custody for former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane in an alleged cooperative fraud and organised crime case.

After hours of deliberation and debate from both sides, the top court upheld the Tulsipur High Court’s decision to send Lamichhane to jail. Along with this, the supreme judicial body of the Himalayan Nation also upheld the decision to send former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and ex-director of Gorkha Media Network, Chhabilal Joshi, to judicial custody.The bench of justices Nahakul Subedi and Balkrishna Dhakal quashed the habeas corpus petition filed by Lamichhane’s wife, Nikita Paudel, demanding his release.

“Based on the immediately available evidence, it could not be reasonably believed that the defendants were innocent of the alleged offence,” the court said in the order.

“Therefore, the order issued by the Tulsipur High Court on April 4 to keep the petitioners Rabi Lamichhane and Chhabilal Joshi in custody for trial proceedings need not be annulled, as there appears to be no error in the ruling. Action shall be taken as per the law.”

Paudel had filed the petition at the court on April 20. Earlier, Lamichhane filed another writ petition against the high court’s order.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, Lamichhane will remain in custody until the Rupandehi District Court delivers a verdict on the Supreme Cooperative fraud case. He will only be released if acquitted by the district court, and only if he is also cleared of other pending charges by that time.

The Tulsipur High Court on April 4 sent Lamichhane to judicial custody in a cooperative fraud case. The Butwal bench of the High Court Tulsipur issued an order to send Lamichhane to judicial custody, overturning the decision of the District Court of Rupandehi.

The district court on January 26 had released Lamichhane on a bail of NPR 10 million on the condition that he appear on the scheduled dates. Lamichhane later moved the high court, challenging the lower court order to seek bail from him.

Judge Yogi had ordered Lamichhane to be released on bail, stating, “Given that there is no reasonable basis to believe the defendant did not commit the alleged crime based on the immediately available evidence, the matter will be further examined during the trial.”

The District Government Attorney’s Office had appealed to the high court, seeking to overturn this order. It had argued that Lamichhane should remain in custody due to the seriousness of the charges and the evidence against him.

The fraud case involves accusations of embezzlement by both Lamichhane and Joshi, with claims of NPR 20 million transferred to Lamichhane’s personal account and NPR 25 million transferred to Joshi’s.

An audit report has revealed that a sum of NPR 109.936 million was deposited into various accounts of Gorkha Media Network. The statement given by Lamichhane, claiming that Joshi had raised capital ranging from NPR 5 million to NPR 12 million for the media company, was also used by the District Judge as a basis.

The charge sheet mentions the joint liability of Lamichhane, Joshi, and GB Rai for the NPR 109.936 million channelled into Gorkha Media Network. Rai, Lamichhane, and Joshi jointly ran the media company. Lamichhane quit the media to form the RSP in June 2022.

Lamichhane was released on bail in several cases: NPR 6.5 million in the Kaski-based Suryadarshan Cooperative case, NPR 6 million in the Swarnalakshmi case in Kathmandu, NPR 10 million in the Supreme Cooperative case in Rupandehi, and NPR 5.4 million in the Sahara Cooperative case in Chitwan.

The cooperative case, which involved 28 defendants, including GB Rai, who is on the run, was registered in April last year with a claim of NPR 860 million in damages. Among the 28, 17 individuals now face additional charges. (ANI)