Police have arrested the cooperative fraud victims protesting against Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party and former Minister of Home Affairs, in Narayanghat of Chitwan district on Saturday.

Four of the victims, including Abdul Miya Ansari, were apprehended from the protest site.

Lamichhane, who is also a Member of Parliament from Chitwan-2, was in Narayanghat to meet with people from his electoral constituency at the Narayani Kala Mandir. During his visit, cooperative victims staged a protest, led by the cooperative victim struggle committee.

While Lamichhane’s event was underway inside a hall, depositors from Sahara Multi-Purpose Cooperative and Sunrise Savings and Credit Cooperative gathered outside to express their grievances.

According to Shalikram Duwadi, coordinator of the Cooperative Victim Struggle Committee, they just wanted to submit a memorandum of their demands following peaceful demonstrations. However, he claimed that members of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) resorted to throwing stones at them.

Saturday's protest follows another demonstration against Lamichhane that took place on Friday afternoon in Mugling Bazaar, signaling anger among cooperative victims against the frauds, who misused their money deposited in cooperatives.

The parliamentary special inquiry committee formed to probe the cooperatives scam found Lamichhane responsible for misusing deposits from various cooperatives. The panel in its report submitted to the Speaker and later forwarded to the government has recommended the authorities concerned to take action against the RSP chair as per the existing laws. A Cabinet meeting last month accepted the report and decided to implement it.