Kathmandu – In a major legal development, Nepal’s Kaski District Court on Friday upheld the decision to withdraw charges of money laundering and organized crime against Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chair Rabi Lamichhane and others in connection with the Suryadarshan Cooperative embezzlement case.
A bench led by Judge Himlal Belbase endorsed the earlier decision taken by former Attorney General Sabita Bhandari to drop the two serious charges against Lamichhane, allowing the prosecution to proceed only under the cooperative fraud case.
Following approval from the then Attorney General, the District Government Attorney’s Office had moved the court seeking amendment of the original chargesheet.
The application requested that the allegations of organized crime and money laundering be removed while retaining the cooperative fraud charge.
Along with Lamichhane, former DIG Chhabilal Joshi and cooperative operator Gitendra Babu Rai (GB Rai) were also named defendants in the case.
In its detailed order, the court stated that “while maintaining the cooperative fraud charges, the organised crime and money laundering charges shall not remain in force.”
The order further noted that “the primary consideration” was ensuring the “easy and speedy return of depositors’ money” to victims who had lost savings in the cooperative scam.
The court observed that although supplementary chargesheets later added organized crime and money laundering allegations, “the Government of Nepal itself had demanded inclusion of the additional charges while filing the supplementary chargesheet,” but “the complainants/victims had not demanded amendment.”
Importantly, the bench said that even after the amendment, “the cooperative fraud charges against the defendants would still remain.”
The order also warned that rejecting the amendment could complicate settlements and recovery efforts, stating, “If amendment is allowed, reconciliation between the complainants and defendants may become difficult and the process of returning money to the complainants may become more complicated.”
At the same time, the court stressed that legal procedures should not override justice itself. “Although criminal justice procedures must be based on legal principles, such procedures should not defeat the fundamental objective of justice,” the order read.
The bench further concluded that “considering the rights, interests and sensitivities of both the complainants and defendants, the amendment request appears reasonable.”
Accordingly, under Section 36 of the National Criminal Procedure Code, 2074, the court ordered amendment of the original and supplementary chargesheets by retaining the cooperative fraud allegations while removing organized crime and money laundering charges.
The decision is politically significant for Lamichhane, whose future ambitions including a possible path toward Nepal’s top executive office had been clouded by the serious nature of the organized crime and money laundering allegations.
While the cooperative fraud case still remains active, the removal of the two heavier criminal charges substantially reduces the legal and political pressure surrounding the RSP chief.
