Himal Press 
POKHARA: The Baglung District Court has sent Dev Kumar Nepali, the founding chairperson of Image Savings and Credit Cooperative and mayor of Dhorpatan Municipality, into judicial custody for trial on charges of misappropriating cooperative funds.
A single bench of District Judge Rameshkant Adhikari took the decision on Tuesday.
Nepali was detained in New Delhi, India, on September 27 and was brought to Nepal. He was presented to the district court on Monday. The district court issued the detention order after a bail hearing on Tuesday.
Since complaints against Nepali have also been filed in Kaski district, he will be presented to the Kaski District Court as well.
Nepali’s brother, Om Prasad Darji, who was also arrested and brought from New Delhi, however, has been released on a bail of Rs 150,000.
Other officials of the cooperative, including Chitra Bahadur Bhandari, Shakti Kisan, Naramati Budha, Dor Bahadur Pariyar, Laxmi Sen, and Anita Budha Magar are already in judicial custody of Baglung District Court.
Nepali has been accused of misappropriating Rs 1.38 billion in and Rs 600 million in Kaski.
A study conducted by the Cooperative Registrar’s Office showed that Nepali had misappropriated nearly Rs 2 billion from depositors in Pokhara, Baglung, Burtibang, and Galkot.
Nepali was elected as the Mayor of Dhorpatan Municipality on a CPN-UML ticket in the 2017 and 2022 local body elections.
