Police have already submitted its report to the prosecutor and accused could face up to five years of imprisonment if proven guilty in both cases

Kathmandu, December 23

The Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu is all set to file two cases against KL Dugar Group on charge of fraud and black-marketing. The police have already submitted its report to the prosecutor on Tuesday in a bid to file the two cases simultaneously.

KL Dugar Group’s Chairman Kishan Lal Dugar, Vice Chairman Naresh Dugar, Managing Director Kumud Dugar and two employees of the company have been named as defendants in both the cases, according to Bikram Singh Thapa, senior superintendent of police at Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu.

The two staffers — Aman Jauthan and Pramod Raj Adhikari — had been arrested from the warehouse of Swastik Oil Industries when the police had conducted a raid on December 3.

As the remand period extended by the Kathmandu District Court to detain the two Dugar employees is going to expire on Tuesday next week, the prosecutor will present them to the court before that. The two arrested employees — Jauthan and Adhikari — are manager and liaison officer of Swastik Oil Industries, respectively.

Even as the arrest warrant has already been issued against the chairman, vice chairman and managing director of KL Dugar Group, all of them are still at large and the police are said to be on the look out for them.

The accused could face up to five years of imprisonment if proven guilty in both cases of fraud and black-marketing. However, if the court does not issue its verdict in the first hearing, the two detained employees of Dugar could be released on bail until the court issues a verdict.

Police have said it has collected ‘indisputable evidences’ through interrogation and based on the seized documents from the company office. Following the raid on the warehouse of Swastik Oil Industries located at Jadibuti of Kathmandu and impounding five trucks laden with edible oil, the police had also raided the company’s factories located in Bara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj to collect the evidences.

Swastik Oil is a flagship business of KL Dugar Group. The Group produces soybean, hydrogenated vegetable, sunflower and palm olein oil under the brand names of Swastik, Dhara and Bigul.

The five trucks impounded by the police were loaded with edible oil that the firm was planning to sell at Rs 320 per litre — double the price during normal times. Swastik Oil Industries had started raising the price of edible oil all of a sudden since the last one-and-a-half months, when the market began witnessing shortage of edible oil due to disruptions in supply of daily essentials from India.