RSP President Lamichhane’s bail plea in cooperative fraud case: crucial high court hearing today in Butwal

November 6, Kathmandu: The High Court Tulsipur’s Butwal Bench is set to hear the high-profile cooperative fraud and organised crime case involving Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane and former Managing Director of Gorkha Media Network Pvt. Ltd., Chhabilal Joshi—both of whom remain in judicial custody.

Their joint case appears third on the daily roster in Courtroom No. 1, where Justices Basudev Acharya and Om Prakash Aryal will preside. Court spokesperson Rambhadur Kunwar confirmed the listing.

Both men have been behind bars since the Rupandehi District Court ordered judicial custody in the Supreme Cooperative scam. Prosecutors accuse them and others of siphoning off a total of Rs 109.9 million from depositors, demanding the full amount as a collective penalty.

Lamichhane insists he played no role in running the cooperative and never took a single rupee as loan or profit. To prove his point, he deposited Rs 27.48 million through a bank guarantee—exactly one-fourth of the total claim—as his supposed share, then asked to be released on bail.

The district court, however, turned him down on August 11. Judge Narayan Prasad Sapkota ruled that depositing money alone was not enough to secure freedom.

Undeterred, Lamichhane knocked on the doors of the High Court on August 25. A previous bench had already merged his file with Joshi’s after noticing the charges were virtually identical, and ordered the full trial records from the lower court.

Last week’s scheduled hearing on October 30 had to be pushed back when Joshi’s lawyers submitted a last-minute application.

Now, everything hinges on today’s ruling. If the division bench accepts the deposit and Lamichhane’s clean-hands argument, both men could leave custody within hours. If not, they stay in jail until the next date.

Whatever the outcome, the decision will send ripples across Nepal’s political landscape, with the Rastriya Swatantra Party watching every minute.