KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 18

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chair Rabi Lamichhane has been arrested today from the RSP central office in Baneshwor, Kathmandu, in connection with a cooperatives fraud case.

A team from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) had reached the RSP central office in Baneshwor, Kathmandu and arrested Lamichhane.

The arrest follows an earlier warrant issued by the single bench of Judge Krishna Jung Shah at District Court Kaski.

The Kaski District Court issued arrest warrants against 14 individuals, including Lamichhane, on Friday. Among them are Lamichhane, Bishal Tamang, Navin Achhami, Rabina Rimal, Ashraf Ali Siddiqui, Deepak Lama, Ananta Babu Rai, and Ram Bahadur Khanal, Devendra Babu Rai, Vigyan Rai, Om Prakash Gurung, Bir Bahadur Ranabhat, Deepa Neupane, and Kalpana Kumari Shrestha.

It has been learnt that the District Police Office of Kaski had formally requested the CIB and other security agencies to apprehend Lamichhane and transport him to Kaski for further legal proceedings. Lamichhane will be taken to Kaski today itself via road following Lamichhane's request.

Alongside charges of cooperative fraud, Lamichhane has also been accused of engaging in organized crime, broadening the scope of the legal case against him.

A large number of security forces were deployed at the RSP office following the issuance of the warrant, with many RSP supporters gathering outside the closed gates of the party headquarters.

After the warrant was issued, Lamichhane took to social media to criticize the government, posting, 'The government is dead....'

The arrest follows a recommendation made in September by the parliamentary Special Committee of Inquiry, which called for action against individuals, including Lamichhane, for their involvement in the misappropriation of funds from various cooperatives. The committee had deemed Lamichhane 'responsible' for the fraud, which affected ordinary depositors.

Lamichhane had previously claimed that he had been 'exonerated' due to the committee's failure to directly link him to the embezzlement of cooperative funds. However, the arrest of Chhabilal Joshi, a former senior officer in the Nepal Police and Lamichhane's associate, had fueled speculation about Lamichhane's imminent arrest.

Joshi, a partner in the Gorkha Media Network, was taken into custody in September, while other individuals involved in the case, including Gitendrababu (GB) Rai, remain at large. Another partner, Kumar Ramtel, is currently serving jail time. The government had submitted a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs recommending legal action against those implicated in the cooperative scam, prompting Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak to order police intervention.

The Special Committee's investigation concluded that Lamichhane had violated the law by acquiring a stake in Gorkha Media Network Pvt. Ltd., which was funded by cooperative savings, implicating him in the broader scandal involving 40 cooperatives across Nepal. Some individuals linked to the case are reportedly on fugitive lists of various security agencies.