The Supreme Court has ordered the Butwal bench of the Tulsipur High Court to submit additional details regarding the bench’s recent decision to remand Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chair Rabi Lamichhane into custody in connection with the ongoing cooperatives fraud case.

A single bench of Justice Tek Prasad Dhungana issued the order on Sunday after conducting a preliminary hearing on a writ petition filed by Lamichhane. The petition requests the apex court to quash the high court’s decision, which overturned the Rupandehi District Court’s ruling to release Lamichhane on bail.

Lamichhane’s wife Nikita Paudel, RSP deputy spokesperson Pratibha Rawal, and legal counsel Narayan Kandel filed the writ petition on his behalf on Friday.

On April 4, the Butwal bench of the high court had annulled the Rupandehi District Court's January 26 order, which had released Lamichhane on Rs10 million bail. Instead, the high court ordered his judicial detention. He is currently being held at Rupandehi District Prison.

The fraud case stems from allegations involving multiple cooperatives, including the Supreme Cooperative in Rupandehi. Lamichhane is accused of diverting tens of millions of rupees from various cooperatives to the now-defunct Gorkha Media Network. The RSP chief was managing director at the media company before he joined politics in June 2022.

Earlier, on January 26, District Court Judge Prahlad Kumar Yogi had granted Lamichhane bail, stating there was insufficient immediate evidence to justify his detention.

Both the District Attorney’s Office and Lamichhane had subsequently appealed to the high court. While the Attorney Office sought judicial detention, Lamichhane challenged the district court’s order to slap him with the bail amount.