Nepalgunj. Police have arrested three absconding accused in a case related to embezzlement of more than Rs 370 million in the then Cooperative Financial Development Institution of Nepalgunj, fraud and organized crime.

Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Banke, Ram Bahadur Gharti, said that hardev bux Chaudhary, Siddhi Kumar Maharjan and Surat Khatik, the then chairmen of Nepalgunj-based Cooperative Financial Development Society, were arrested and handed over to the court. A total of 1,526 savers of the organization had lodged complaints.

According to police, the decision implementation team of the Nepalgunj High Court has arrested three people involved in cooperative fraud. They were absconding after a two-tier court — Banke District Court and Tulsipur Nepalgunj Bench — decided to pay the jail term. According to the police, 10 more accused in the case are absconding.

The court has sentenced Chaudhary and Suratram Khatik to five years imprisonment each and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each, while Maharjan was sentenced to two years in jail and fined Rs 5,000.

A division bench of District Judge Indra Bahadur Kathayat had convicted 19 people in a case filed against 41 people at the District Court, Banke on October 27, 2018, in connection with the scam in the cooperative. The High Court had upheld the district court’s decision on June 1, 2018, when the defendants had approached the High Court against the verdict.