The Parliamentary Investigation Special Committee on the Misuse of Cooperatives and Savings Fund has found Rabi Lamichhane, President of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), guilty in the embezzlement of cooperative funds through Gorkha Media Networks.
The committee meeting held from Sunday 2 pm to Monday 3 am concluded that former Home Minister Lamichhane is guilty and recommended action against him, a committee member said.
"The committee reached a consensus to take legal action against Lamichhane," he said, "He was found guilty in the misuse of millions of rupees secured as loans by Gorkha Media Networks from various cooperatives."
Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai misused millions of rupees funneled to Gorkha Media Networks after fraudulently obtaining them as loans from various cooperatives. Rabi ji was Managing Director of the Network then. His role was witnessed in the embezzlement of the funds. We reached the consensus to mention in the report what we found," he said.
Preparations are underway to submit the 700-page report to the Parliament. A meeting of the House of Representatives has been scheduled for 1 pm today.
It took a long time for the committee to reach consensus on recommending legal action against Rabi over differences among the committee members on whether to mention Lamichhane's name in the report.
A seven-member Parliamentary Investigation Special Committee to this end had been formed under the coordination of UML lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa on May 28.
Rabi was allegedly implicated in the embezzlement of the funds of Sudarshan and Butwal Supreme Cooperatives. However, the committee has found no evidence of his involvement in these cooperatives. He was found guilty in Gorkha Media Network.
UML's Sarita Bhusal, Nepali Congress leaders Ishwari Neupane and Dilendra Badu, CPN (Maoist Center)'s Lekhnath Dahal, Shishir Khanal from RSP and Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan from Rastriya Prajatantra Party are in the committee.
The first meeting of the committee had been held on June 5. The deadline which was extended by 15 days after the work could not be completed within the original three-month deadline.
The extended deadline is expiring on September 22. Earlier, the committee had interrogated Rabi Lamichhane for nine hours.
He denied most of the allegations leveled against him. The parliamentary committee has also conducted interviews various people on this matter.
