30 June, Kathmandu. It has been found that the director and manager of ‘Mega Dream Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society’, which has its central office in Balaju Machhapokhari, has embezzled more than 2 billion rupees from savers.
It has been found that the co-operative board of directors and their relatives and personal investment companies are making embezzlement by investing loans.
According to the investigation conducted by the police department, it has been revealed that Mega Dream Cooperative President Mahashankar Regmi, Treasurer Ravin Kumar Karki, Audit Committee Coordinator Umakant Neupane and Director Shekhar Basnet misused the organization’s funds and bought personal land, took loans and did not pay and also invested in private companies.
Based on the investigation report done by the police circle Buddh, the Public Prosecutor’s Office Kathmandu has filed a case against 10 people including the cooperative president Regmi. The demands of 161 savers of cooperative organizations are equal to 215.6 million 94 thousand rupees.
Based on the police investigation report, the Public Prosecutor’s Office Kathmandu filed a case in the court stating that the defendants Vasudev Bhatt, Indra Prasad Gelal, Sharad Kumar Adhikari, Mahashankar Regmi, Ravin Kumar Karki, Shekhar Basnet, Rajkumar Shrestha, Umakant Neupane, Prakash Ghimire and Subhadra Chaulagari have defrauded 21 crore 56 lakh 94 thousand. filed.
It has been requested to punish the defendants according to the Criminal Code, 2074 and provide the complainant’s demands.
The office has made cooperative secretary Indra Prasad Gelal, vice president Vasudev Bhatt, director Sharad Kumar Adhikari and former president and audit committee coordinator Umakant Neupane as defendants.
Similarly, currently absconding defendants Cooperative President Mahashankar Regmi, Treasurer Ravin Kumar Karki, Directors Shekhar Basnet, Rajkumar Shrestha, Audit Supervisory Committee members Prakash Ghimire and Subhadra Chaulagai have also been made defendants. In their case, the court has also been requested to issue an arrest warrant according to the Civil Criminal Procedure Code, 2074.
The president and manager were absconding after closing the office and service center of the cooperative for the last one and a half years. On May 1, Buddhist police circle arrested cooperative manager and board secretary Indra Prasad Gelal, vice president Vasudev Bhatt and director Sharad Kumar Adhikari and started an investigation. Meanwhile, Umakanta Neupane, coordinator of the Cooperative’s Account Supervision Committee, was also arrested and an investigation report was submitted.
The cooperative had been collecting savings from the general public by establishing service centers at seven places in Kathmandu Valley.
According to an employee who worked in the cooperative, savings were collected by offering high interest to employees and relatives in various service centers and the collected savings were invested through the same service center, but other funds were transferred to the central office.
The manager of the service center was not given the right to approve loans of more than 2 lakhs. Being an affiliated organization, he asked his relatives and acquaintances to keep savings so that they could get good interest. Not only did he get into trouble, but his relatives also lost crores of rupees,’ said another employee who worked in the organization.
Even though the Buddhist police investigated, the employee submitted the investigation report without even taking the complaint of the victim saver who went to the police to file a complaint Online newstold to
Although the police sent a report with a demand of Rs 21 crore, it seems that more than Rs 2 billion of savers’ money has been embezzled in the cooperative.
According to another employee who worked in the same cooperative, there have been problems in the organization for about two years. Since then, the members of the board of directors have returned the 1/2 million savings of their relatives, but the savings have not been returned due to the closure of the office and the directors being out of touch.
2 billion in capital and liabilities
According to the annual report of the cooperative for the financial year 2078/79, the total savings liability at the end of June 2079 is only 1.74 billion 1.5 million rupees.
Similarly, the share capital is 164.45 million. Other fund is 55.2 million and credit risk fund is 9.28 million 30 thousand.
Similarly, the loan liability taken from the National Cooperative Bank is 153 million. At the end of June 2079, the total capital and liability of the organization is 2 billion 250 million 93 million rupees. Out of which 2.3 billion 1.2 billion loan investments and 1.885 billion bank balances are shown.
The employee said that even if some amount was returned from the loan recovery and bank balance, the organization still has the responsibility to return more than 1.7 billion, including the savings and shares of the savers.
This is how the manager embezzled the amount
The employee said that Mahashankar Regmi, the chairman of the cooperative, misused the organization’s funds the most. A loan of 5 crores has been given in the name of Mahashankar’s cousin Jeevan Ojha. He also worked as the chief executive officer of Sukrapath Cooperative.
He used to show that there is land in Chobhar behind Hupiland and the adjacent land planned by the Nepali Army. Lately, Associate Secretary Idra Prasad Gelal had been saying that he had invested in it.
Employees of the organization say that the cooperative has invested 16 million in the said land. The said land is not in the name of the institution. The directors have invested in the land by showing unsecured loans in the names of other business partners and relatives,’ said an employee, ‘The directors of the cooperative have been giving assurances to the savers that the sale of the said land will bring 300 million and return the savings.’
According to him, the said land is in the names of Guru Timalsina, Nirhari Upadhyay, Mahashankar’s cousin Jeevan Ojha and others who are business partners of cooperative president Mahashankar.
Nirahari Upadhyay is the former president of Sukrapath Cooperative in Kathmandu New Road. Jeevan Ojha is the Executive Secretary of Sukrapath Cooperative. Indraprasad Gelal, secretary of Megadream Cooperative, had also worked as a manager in Shukrapath Cooperative when there were problems in the past.
Employees who worked in the organization say that when there was a problem in the spermatic system at that time, the problem was solved by transferring inter-cooperative funds from Megadream itself.
Cooperative president Regmi has bought 16 ropani land in partnership with another person named Amrita Shrestha. An employee of the organization said that the land was purchased from the source of the cooperative.
Similarly, Regmi also became a partner by investing shares in a company called SDG, which is owned by Amrita Shrestha.
Cooperative Secretary Gelal has also confirmed this in his statement to Priri. The president of the organization, Mahashankar Regmi, bought his own shares in the company of food suppliers called ADG, run by Amrita Shrestha, and as a shareholder in that company, he transferred a loan of around 20 million from the organization. Even the said debt has not been raised,’ he said in the statement.
He stated that most of the borrowers who took loans of up to 10 crores invested by the cooperatives filed a lawsuit in the court when they did not repay the loans. “Chairman Mahashankar Regmi has not paid the loan of 70 million taken by himself,” he said in a statement.
Cooperative Secretary Gelal has confirmed in his statement that President Regmi bought land in Dahchowk, Kathmandu. He also stated that there is a land in Chobhar in the joint name of Chitwan and his wife Chandika Humagain Regmi in the name of cooperative chairman Regmi.
Secretary Gelal has said in a statement that the loan of 50 million taken by cooperative treasurer Ravin Kumar Karki has not been repaid. According to his statement, there are about 80 million shares on behalf of the cooperative in Limpia International School located in Jorpati.
The directors, who were planning to sell the shares of the same school, were arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police as a client.
The CIB submitted it to the Buddhist circle for investigation. An employee said that more than 16 crores have been invested in the school by cooperatives.
In the name of Shekhar Basnet, one of the co-operative owners, there is also land invested in Jhapa district.
Trying to sell expensive land to savers
The cooperative owner, using an intermediary, gave land to the savers at the price of 10 dhur, 1.5 million, and also called to pass the land to Sarlahi Hariwan Municipality, deducting 10 million from the savings and adding 5 million.
A saver who has about 6 lakh savings in the organization added 9 lakh rupees and bought a land at a place called Dabri in Hariwan municipality for 1.5 lakhs and when he tried to sell the passed land, even for 6 lakhs, 10 dhur land was not sold, said the saver.
“Earlier, only 6 lakhs was stuck, even if I had land, I passed by adding 9 lakhs instead of taking it. Now the land is not worth more than 6 lakhs. Another 3 lakh also got trapped,’ said the saver with Online Khabar.
He said that employees affiliated to the organization and their relatives have been invited to pass the land in Sarlahi so that the adjustment will be made from the savings amount and no additional amount will be required.
The saver said that the offer comes through the middleman who deals with the land rather than the official person of the cooperative. Cooperative treasurer Ravin Kumar Karki said that there is land in Jhapa Arjundhara and asked the savers to take the land.
There are more than 500 debtors in the organization. He said that even if there are some small debtors, the main debtors are connected with the directors and managers and when they call to collect the debt, they get the answer that the officials of the cooperative have handled it or have arranged with them.
Damodar Sharma, the manager of the Thankot branch of the cooperative, was related to Mahashankar Regmi’s maternal uncle. The savings liability of the said service center is more than 160 million, while the outstanding debt is only 80 million.
Damodar Sharma used to cut the savings amount at the service center and deposit it at the central office. In other service centers also, money was being misused by transferring the money to the central office by entrusting the manager to a relative or trusted person.
Similarly, Santosh Gajurel, the brother-in-law of Cooperative Secretary Gelal, used to work as the manager of New Road Service Center. Through Gajurel, the cooperative secretary Gelal has settled the savings of the relatives through the loans to be raised and the said details have not been entered in the organization.
Although Gelal gave loans to his relatives through Gajurel, the source said that the exact details are not available.
Deepakraj Ojha, brother of Cooperative Secretary Jeevan Ojha, was looking at the organization’s Chabhil service center. In this way, it seems that the directors and managers and their relatives are misusing the money collected through the service center by taking it to the central office.
