Former DIG Joshi asserts innocence amid ongoing investigative proceedings

Kathmandu, October 18 — Former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Chhabilal Joshi is currently in police custody on charges of embezzling funds from the Surya Darshan Cooperative. He was apprehended on September 22 in Bansbari, Kathmandu, and is under investigation by the District Police Office, Kaski.

Investigating officers and the public prosecutor have conducted an extensive interrogation regarding the misappropriation of the cooperative's deposits, allegedly funneled into the Gorkha Media Network. A police official involved in the investigation disclosed to Ratopati that Joshi provided a lengthy 36-page statement.

In his defense, Joshi claimed that the funds in question were brought to Gorkha Media by Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai. He asserted in his statement, “I did not spend a single rupee from the cooperative’s funds.”

The founder chairman of Surya Darshan Cooperative, GB, along with former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane and Joshi, established the Gorkha Media Network. According to a parliamentary investigative committee led by Surya Thapa, it has been concluded that 654 million Nepali rupees were illicitly sourced from five cooperatives.

Joshi has remained reticent concerning Lamichhane. When queried by investigating officials about who had disbursed the funds, he remarked, “The records of expenditures will be available there.” Lamichhane is noted to have been a director at Gorkha Media, with investigations revealing that he signed off on equipment purchases and employee salaries.

One officer involved in the investigation commented, “He (Joshi) has not explicitly stated that Rabi was involved in the embezzlement; he has indicated that one can ascertain that from the documents.”

In his statement, which centers on GB, Joshi maintained, “I have already distanced myself from Gorkha Media; I am not involved in any embezzlement of funds.”