Nepali Congress Lawmaker Arrested on Charge of Coop Fraud, Organized Crime

Police have taken Maya Rai, a lawmaker from the ruling Nepali Congress, under control from her house in Kapan for a probe into her alleged involvement in the embezzlement of 690 depositors’ money kept at the Kalimati-based Swarnalaxmi Saving and Credit Cooperatives, to the tune of around 1.193 billions.

Following the arrest on Saturday, police wrote to the Parliament Secretariat informing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the bicameral Federal Parliament, about the arrest. 

The lawmaker, the then joint-secretary of Swarnalaxmi, had been evading arrest even after the issuance of an arrest warrant from the Kathmandu district court on the charge of committing cooperative fraud and organized crime together with 38 others.  

The failure to bring the lawmaker under the purview of law had courted widespread criticism.