Nov 13, Kathmandu - The petition of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane and former DIG Chhabilal Joshi, who have sought to be released from custody after paying the fine in the cooperative fraud case including organized crime, was filed before the bench of Justices Basudev Acharya and Om Prasad Aryal of the Butwal bench of the Tulsipur High Court on Thursday (Kartik 10).

The Rupandehi District Court had ordered a bail of Rs 10 million against Rabi in the Supreme Cooperative Fraud case in Butwal. Chhabi was sent to custody for trial.

When Rabi went to the High Court seeking a general date against the bail order, the Butwal bench sent him to detention. Rabi had approached the Supreme Court with a petition against the order from detention. The Supreme Court had upheld his petition in Jestha last year.

After Chhabi also failed to get an order against his detention from the Supreme Court, both of them filed a petition to be released after paying the bail amount. They went to a higher court after not getting an order from the district court.

Legally, there is a provision for the facility to pay the amount and fight the case outside after the amount has been revealed. However, the law has not given this facility to people involved in organized crime.

The District Court had ordered that the personal amount has not been revealed and accordingly, a fine will be imposed and since organized crime is involved, it will not be as per the petition. After that, Rabi and Chhabi have reached the High Court with petition number 73. If they do not get a favorable order from there too, they can approach the Supreme Court.

Rabi was the then Managing Director of Gorkha Media Network Pvt. Ltd. Chhabi was the then Director of Gorkha Media. On their petition, the same bench on Kartik 20 had ordered the withdrawal of the initial file.