Pokhara's co-operative victims say - 'The Home Minister has said that he will give money from the state fund'

In the rally, the co-operative victims raised slogans with pamphlets against the regulatory body Pokhara Metropolitan City, Ministry of Co-operatives as well as Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane. Savers of other cooperatives along with 6 cooperatives of Kaski, who were sued in the court, also participated in the rally. Suryadarshan, Image, Mitra Milan, Sahabari, Shivshikhar and Vindhyavasini Savings and Credit Cooperatives who embezzle common people's savings are affiliated to the Savings Savers Sangharsa Samiti. In the corner meeting held after the

rally, the coordinator of Sangharsh Samiti, Kiran Shrestha, revealed that Home Minister Lamichhane had promised to give money to the cooperative victims, even if it was through the state fund. Shrestha said that when the victim saver of Suryadarshan Sahakari reached Kathmandu and met the Home Minister, he was assured of the refund of the victim's money by making a law on the matter. Said, 'If so, don't delay. The situation has reached a situation where savers die due to lack of medication. The victim met Home Minister and RSVP Chairman Lamichhane, who was involved in co-operative fraud, in the ministry and demanded to solve the problem of Suryadarshan Cooperative.

Last March 27, a 10-member team of cooperative victims met Lamichhane and demanded the arrest of GB Rai, the fugitive defendant of cooperative fraud, and 14 other people. They also asked to clarify about Lamichhane's involvement in cooperative fraud. In that meeting, Lamichhane repeated his statement as usual that 'I didn't do it, I didn't take it, I didn't eat it, I just worked at Galaxy TV'. Taltu replied that Lamichhane was consulting with the Malaysian government to arrest Rai after the victim asked him to find GB Rai and take legal action to recover the victim's money. Shrestha also claimed that Lamichhane said during the meeting with the co-operative victims that they are preparing to take out 1-2 billion rupees from the state fund and identify the real victims and distribute them. Stating that Lamichhane assured that the program is being designed to distribute the money, Coordinator Shrestha said, "GB Rai was asked for 3-4 weeks time to be arrested. Now two weeks have passed.'

Sangharsh Samiti has also submitted a memorandum to the District Police Office, Pokhara Metropolis and Ziprak. In the memorandum, the fugitive defendants should be arrested immediately, provincial and metropolitan level committees should be formed for the management of problematic cooperatives, the problems of the cooperative victims should be managed quickly by the state, it should be arranged that the property of the cooperatives mortgaged in the bank cannot be auctioned until the problems of the cooperative victims are resolved, the existing law should be amended by fast track, and the amount of the cooperative victims should be given immediately. It has been demanded that a legal arrangement should be made for the return, a white paper should be issued about the situation of fugitive accused Gitendrababu Rai (GB) and Dev Kumar Nepali and the initiatives being taken to arrest them.

The act of obstructing the fair administration of justice should be stopped by providing political protection to the accused, the property of the working committee members should be confiscated and the auction process should be carried forward, the environment should be created to protect the real debtors and the loan repayment environment should be made, and those who have illegally mobilized loans or taken loans should be held as defendants and recovery should be arranged. In the memorandum, there is a demand to create an environment where the savings will be returned to the savings members who are in real trouble. On the other hand, the preparation of supplementary research report of Suryadarshan in Pokhara has reached its final stage. The Kaski police started the investigation again after the co-operative victim filed a supplementary application on January 22 saying that the investigation report of the Pokhara metropolis and the previous investigation report of the police were weak. In a supplementary petition, the victim filed a petition demanding an investigation against 15 people and three companies, including Raswap chairman Lamichhane, Dipesh Pun, son of the former vice president, Gyan Bahadur Bamjan, former chairman of the board of directors. It was requested in the petition that the metropolis should analyze the data of 075 years only in the cooperative's software and prepare a report. It was mentioned in the previous report that one crore rupees went to the name of Ravi Lamichhane under the title of Puleso loan from the cooperative and the said loan was transferred to the name of Gorkha Media Network.

The report is being prepared with the involvement of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB), Kaski Police, Pokhara Metropolitan representative, expert team and representatives of the victims. He said that he is ready to prepare a report and submit it to the Metropolitan Municipality and the police within a few days. Deepak Prakash Acharya, an expert representative on behalf of the metropolis, mentioned that it was found from the investigation that although it was seen that the loan was paid in the business, it was not collected in cash. According to him, the loan taken two years ago was transferred to the name of Gorkha Media Network last June after problems started in the cooperative. In that regard, it seems that the team involved in the investigation did not even question Lamichhane.