As police continue probing Rastriya Swatantra Party President and former home minister Rabi Lamichhane by keeping him in custody for over two months over his alleged involvement in cooperatives fraud case, RSP leaders and sympathisers have been consistently raising questions over the impartiality of investigation.

“Why has the government not investigated Congress leader Dhan Raj Gurung and UML leader Rishikesh Pokharel even as they are linked to cooperatives scams?” This is a common refrain from RSP leaders, of late.

They accuse the ruling parties of protecting leaders close to them while targeting opposition leaders and carrying out investigations in a selective approach.

On December 17, the Morang District Court issued arrest warrants against 25 people, including Anjala Koirala, wife of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair and UML leader Rishikesh Pokharel, in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the Uma-Gauri Agricultural Cooperatives.

Since then, voices have again grown to probe Nepali Congress Vice-president Dhan Raj Gurung, too, for his alleged involvement in the misuse of cooperatives funds.

Dhan Raj Gurung and his former wife, Jyoti, allegedly embezzled funds from Miteri Cooperative in Lalitpur. In suspicion of Jyoti fleeing the country, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police in October recommended the police headquarters issue an Interpol Red notice against her. Then, the Interpol issued the notice against Jyoti Gurung and Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari in the second week of November.

The parliamentary special probe committee, formed on May 28 to investigate the crisis-ridden cooperatives under the leadership of CPN-UML lawmaker Surya Thapa, instructed in its report submitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives in September to investigate Dhan Raj Gurung along with his former wife for their alleged involvement in embezzling cooperatives funds.

RSP members, among others, argue that the authorities were not investigating Congress leader Gurung even as they have been prosecuting Lamichhane on the basis of the recommendation by the same report.

However, Congress Chief Whip, Shyam Kumar Ghimire, claimed that his party’s vice-president Gurung has not been prosecuted because it was his former wife, Jyoti, who misappropriated Miteri Cooperative funds, and not Dhan Raj himself. Even if they had not been divorced, there is no law requiring the husband to be investigated for the fraud committed by the wife, Ghimire claimed.

Many people have accused the authorities of sparing Dhan Raj due to pressure from the ruling party. After the police arrested RSP President Lamichhane accusing him of misusing cooperative funds, RSP leaders have accused the government of pursuing him in a political witch hunt.

But Congress leaders refute the allegations saying that there was no pressure at all from the party not to investigate Gurung.

“Our party has not pressured the law enforcement agencies at all not to investigate party vice-president Gurung,” Ghimire said. “Gurung has not been investigated because he is not involved in any wrongdoing.”

Ghimire also argued that the accusations against RSP chair Lamichhane and the Congress vice-president are quite different. Lamichhane is accused of defrauding the cooperatives, while Gurung is linked to the case because of the involvement of his former wife.

Though there has been an investigation on Congress vice-chair Gururng as per the recommendation of the parliamentary special probe committee’s report, police have not yet found his involvement in the misuse of cooperatives funds, says CIB spokesperson Hobindra Bogati.

Police interrogated Congress leader Gurung for about four-and-a-half hours on November 13 in suspicion of his involvement in the cooperatives scam. He has denied the allegations.

“Without any connection, police cannot declare anyone guilty. As far as our investigation shows, Dhan Raj Gurung has not been found guilty in the scam,” Bogati said. “We have already issued a Red notice against his former wife, Jyoti, and the police are using the diplomatic channel to bring her back.”

Bogati claimed that whether the party is in the government or not does not make any difference in their investigation.

Kumbharaj Gurung, chairman of Miteri Cooperative, filed a complaint at the Department of Cooperatives in August, alleging that Jyoti Gurung, the then general manager of the cooperative had embezzled millions of rupees from the cooperative. He also accused Congress Vice-president Dhan Raj of being involved in the financial transactions.

Jyoti, the former wife of Congress leader Dhan Raj, joined the cooperative as a clerk on May 25, 2000. Within two months, she was promoted to accountant and became the general manager in 2018.

After becoming the general manager, Jyoti allegedly transferred the cooperative’s funds to the name of Jyoti Bahadur Bhandari. Initially, Jyoti Gurung is found to have withdrawn Rs3 million from the cooperative and loaned it to Bhandari for a week. Bhandari returned the amount, topping it up by half a million rupees.

Then Bhandari again took out another loan worth Rs4 million. This time, Bhandari returned the money next week, paying Rs1 million extra. Jyoti Gurung profited by misappropriating the cooperative’s funds to lend at exorbitant interest rates, calculated weekly.

Later, Bhandari ran away with the money given by Jyoti Gurung. Congress leader Dhan Raj Gurung is accused of divorcing his wife only on paper after his wife’s business became unmanageable.

Khumbharaj Gurung, the cooperative chairman, claimed that Dhan Raj took out a loan from the cooperative, with Jyoti Gurung as witness, even after their ‘paper divorce’.

“Dhan Raj Gurung claims to have divorced Jyoti only to evade his obligations,” Khumbharaj told the Post.

“Despite repaying the loan in their names, Gurung and his former wife will have to repay the money they misused from the cooperative. They have misused Rs140.81 million,” chairman Khumbharaj Gurung says.

Congress leader Gurung has denied his involvement in the scam arguing that he can’t be held responsible for the misappropriation of money by his former wife with whom he no longer has any relationship.

Although Dhanraj Gurung claims that he separated himself from his wife in 2019, Miteri Cooperative chair Kumbharaj told law enforcement agencies that the lawmaker continued to pay off the debts in his wife’s name until last year.

He gave the same statements to the parliamentary probe committee.

Various copies of deposit vouchers Dhan Raj Gurung reportedly used to pay back the cooperative loan have surfaced on various media outlets.

After being accused of embezzling the cooperative’s funds, Dhan Raj on September 10 spoke in Parliament and demanded a proper investigation on the “false allegations” against him.

The parliamentary committee formed to investigate the crisis-ridden cooperatives that submitted its report in September, however, suggested the law enforcement probe Congress leader Gurung as well.