Police seek action against 35 including lawmaker over cooperative fund misuse

Madhyabindu, May 25: Police have submitted a report, seeking a case against 35 people including a lawmaker on the charge of embezzling the fund of Chhipchhpe Users Cooperative.

The office of the cooperative is located at Kawasoti municipality-3 in Nawalparasi Purba.

The Police submitted the investigation report to the District Attorney's Office with a suggestion to file a case against 35 persons, determining that they had embezzled more than Rs 166.8 million savings of depositors. 

Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Nawalparasi Purba, Narahari Regmi, said the report suggested the District Attorney's Office made a member of House of Representatives Gita Basnet of Rastriya Prajatantra Party elected from Bardiya, her brother-in-law Nagendra Babu Rimal, cooperative manager Yogendra Pandey, cooperative chairperson Gopi Krishna Sharma, among others as defendants. 

Of them, 10 defendants are now in police custody and the search for the remaining 25 people absconding after the launch of the investigation- including lawmaker Basnet- is underway, he added. 

The investigation of the police and cooperative registrar office revealed that the sitting manager Yogendra Pandey was the mastermind of the cooperative fund embezzlement. 

Pandey had served as chairperson of the cooperative for seven years. In the course of the probe, Pandey was found issuing loans to his close persons without any collateral, mentioned Regmi.  (RSS)