Ravi Lamichhane, president of the National Independent Party (Raswpa), is accused of cooperative fraud. He gave a denial statement to the special committee investigating the case. On Friday, he appeared before the committee and repeated his claim that he had not taken any loans from cooperatives.

He said he will not be responsible for the loan taken by Gorkha Media. A committee member quoted him as saying, “I am not a cooperative member and haven’t taken any loans from cooperatives. I can’t take responsibility for the media’s loan from the cooperative.”

Even though it’s publicly known that a loan was given from the Supreme Cooperative in Butwal under his name, Lamichhane said he got a 15 percent share in Gorkha Media Network and became the MD because of that.