Kushma’s administrative chief arrested in cooperative fraud probe

POKHARA: Uday Bahadur Parajuli, the chief administrative officer of Kushma Municipality, has been arrested as part of an investigation into cooperative fraud.

The District Police Office, Parbat, arrested Parajuli from the municipality premises on Wednesday. Parajuli had been on the run after the Kaski District Court issued an arrest warrant for him.

DSP Khumlal Bhusal of the District Police Office, Parbat, said that they were in the process of transferring Parajuli to the District Police Office, Kaski.

Parajuli is facing allegations of soliciting bribes from promoters of saving and credit cooperatives during his tenure as the Registrar at the Office of the Cooperative Registrar, Gandaki.

The arrest warrant was issued after the board of directors of Pokhara-based Mitra Milan Saving & Credit Cooperatives testified before the police that they paid over Rs 10 million to Parajuli to secure the go-ahead for expanding branch offices. After the arrest warrant was issued, he took leave from his office, citing the Public Service Commission (PSC) examination.

The District Police Office, Kaski, is preparing to submit its investigation report to the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kaski. It is preparing to advise the government attorney’s office to name 32 individuals associated with the cooperatives in the charge sheet and recover Rs 317.82 million from them.

A committee formed to investigate complaints from depositors found that promoters of the cooperatives defrauded 3,446 depositors of Rs 268.66 million.

Police have already arrested the cooperative’s chairman Raman Poudel, CEO Kiran Adhikari, board director Gopal Khanal, and advisors Raju Baral and Buddhi Sagar Poudel. Others involved are still in the run.