Nepal Supreme Court Orders Not to Arrest Investment Mega Bank Officials

Nepal’s Supreme Court has issued an interim order not to arrest the chairman and other directors of Nepal Investment Mega Bank.

The government had been investigating the bank for allegedly auctioning off the assets of Smart Telecom without government permission.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police had requested the Kathmandu District Court to issue an arrest warrant for all members of the bank’s board of directors.

Following the issuance of the arrest warrant, the Nepal Rastra Bank had frozen the bank accounts of all the directors.

Against this backdrop, the bank’s CEO Jyotiprakash Pandey and other directors had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court, seeking an interim order not to arrest them.

On Thursday, a single bench of Justice Tek Prasad Dhungana issued an interim order not to arrest the bank officials, including Chairman Prithvi Bahadur Pandey, directors Prajanya Rajbhandari, Kavikumar Tibrewala, Dipankar Shaky Udai, Shalikram Belbase, and Shobha Shrestha.

However, the court has fixed August 25 as the date for further discussion on whether to issue an interim order or not.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Rastra Bank has been criticized for not taking effective action in the case, despite the arrest warrant being issued for the entire board of directors of the bank, which has deposits of around Rs 60 billion from the general public.

Concerns Over Bank’s Stability

A senior official of the Nepal Rastra Bank said that the financial sector is highly sensitive and requires careful implementation of the law.

The official added that the central bank should have taken a proactive role to prevent the bank’s board of directors from being arrested, which could have led to a bank run and created problems for the institution.

‘The police should also understand this and take necessary action, seeking the central bank’s cooperation if needed,’ the official said.