After a year of silence and delays, police have finally arrested Devi Prasad Bhattachan, former UML lawmaker and chairman of Prabhu Group. He was taken into custody by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) from Lalitpur on Tuesday for his alleged role in a financial fraud worth over Rs. 98 crore.
The case background
Bhattachan is accused of misusing remittance funds that were supposed to be paid to several cooperatives across Nepal. According to police, more than 30 cooperatives had filed complaints saying the remittance money sent from abroad was never delivered. The real number of affected cooperatives is believed to be much higher, and the issue dates back nearly a decade.
In 2012, Bhattachan obtained a license from Nepal Rastra Bank for Prabhu Money Transfer Pvt. Ltd. and later signed a deal between Prabhu Management Pvt. Ltd. and Prabhu Money Transfer. Both companies were run by Bhattachan himself. Under this agreement, Prabhu Management acted as a “super agent” to handle remittance transactions through local cooperatives nationwide.
What went wrong
The CIB found that Prabhu Management and its sub-agents collected remittance funds from cooperatives but failed to return the corresponding amounts. Over 3,000 cooperatives reportedly did not get back a total of Rs. 97 crore 37 lakh 80 thousand 213. Due to these violations, Nepal Rastra Bank has now stopped Prabhu Money Transfer from working as a super agent, effectively halting its remittance business.
Political pressure delayed action
Although the complaint was filed a year ago, police reportedly hesitated to act due to political influence. The first complaint was jointly filed by Bhattachan’s business partner Kusum Lama and others, but both the Kathmandu District Police and the CIB refused to register it at that time.
The case was later forwarded to the Police Headquarters, the Home Ministry, and the Office of the Attorney General. Finally, District Attorney Santosh Raj Katuwal instructed that the case be registered under sections 249 and 252 of the Criminal Code 2074, and under section 5(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Only after this directive and a change in government did the police move forward and arrest Bhattachan. The CIB has also made the Government of Nepal a plaintiff in the case, while adding Kusum Lama as a co-defendant.
