CIB launches investigation into Surya Darshan Cooperative fund embezzlement

Kathmandu, September 24 — The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has decided to send a team to investigate the embezzlement of funds at Surya Darshan Cooperative located in Pokhara Metropolitan City, Ward No. 5.

Former DIG Chhabilal Joshi has been arrested, and the District Police Office in Kaski is conducting the second phase of the investigation regarding the embezzlement of funds at Surya Darshan Cooperative.

A "support team" is being dispatched to assist the investigative officers examining the files of Surya Darshan, as informed by AIG Deepak Thapa of the CIB. He stated that the decision to send a team from Kathmandu was made to thoroughly investigate according to the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry committee.

Former DIG Joshi, former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, and the founding chairman of Surya Darshan Cooperative, Giteendra Babu (GB), were past business partners involved in the Gorkha Media Network. The parliamentary inquiry committee, led by Surya Thapa, concluded that 655.4 million NPR had been illegally obtained from five cooperatives.

Lamichhane was a director of Gorkha Media. Millions of rupees embezzled from the cooperative were issued as checks with his signature. The police are preparing to arrest Lamichhane based on the initial statements collected from Joshi.