Political leaders, including NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, and Deputy Prime Minister, who is also Home Minister convened at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence in Baluwatar. The leaders agreed to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the cooperative fraud.

However, the scope of the committee’s investigation, particularly whether it will directly target Lamichhane, remains a point of contention.

Lamichhane has been facing allegations of involvement in a cooperative embezzlement scandal. The main opposition party, Nepali Congress (NC), has been disrupting parliamentary proceedings for a month, demanding a probe into Lamichhane’s role in the cooperative fraud.

The scandal revolves around GB Rai, who has been accused of illegally diverting deposits from several cooperatives to fund his Gorkha Media Network. Lamichhane served as managing director and held 15% stake in the network.

The controversy escalated with revelations that Gorkha Media had secured substantial loans from multiple cooperatives: Rs 105 million from Supreme Cooperative, Rs 120 million from Sahara Cooperative of Chitwan, and Rs 100 million from Suryadarshan Cooperative of Pokhara.

According to Clause 50 of the Cooperatives Act 2017, cooperatives are permitted to accept deposits and provide loans only to their members.

A four-member working group has been tasked with determining the committee’s mandate. The group comprises Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Padam Giri, NC Joint General Minister Jeevan Pariyar, UML Chief Whip Mahesh Bartola, and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) MP Shishir Khanal. The group were unable finalise the mandate and couldn’t come into agreement.

While the other opposition parties agreed to form a committee for investigation without including Lamichhane’s name but to investigate the cooperatives linked with him, Nepali Congress however did not agree and insisted Lamichhane’s name be included.

The meeting of the National Assembly was adjourned till Monday as of the disruption.

Nepali Congress has demanded that the committee investigate the activities of three cooperatives and include Lamichhane within its investigative scope.

As PM Dahal seeks a fresh vote of confidence tomorrow on May 20th, the opposition has agreed to let Lamichhane address the parliament.