Chief Business Officer Rashmi Panta arrested in Prabhu Bank irregularities case
Devi Prakash Bhattachan, the former chairman of the Prabhu Group, has been accused of misappropriating over NPR 980 million from Prabhu Management Company. Bhattachan, Sherchan, and others were arrested following a complaint filed by Kusum Lama, the chairperson of Prabhu Management.
KATHMANDU:- The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police has arrested Rashmi Pant, the Chief Business Officer of Prabhu Bank. The CIB arrested Pant during an investigation into banking offenses.
CIB Spokesperson and Senior Superintendent of Police Anupam Shamsher Jb. Rana stated that the investigation concerns specific financial transactions, decision-making processes, and managerial approvals related to banking offenses.
The CIB stated that it arrested and initiated an investigation into Pant after his involvement came to light during the probe into Shashidhar Sharma—the Chairman of Asian Village Resort Pvt. Ltd.—who is currently in CIB custody on charges of loan misuse under the Banking Offence and Punishment Act, 2064.
The investigation was initiated based on a special on-site inspection report prepared by the Bank Supervision Department of Nepal Rastra Bank in Asar 2083. According to the report, Asian Village Resort Pvt. Ltd. had obtained a loan of Rs 480 million from Prabhu Bank Limited for resort construction and land acquisition.
It is alleged that the loan was obtained based on an undertaking to mortgage the land to the bank at a later date, but the funds were not utilized for the designated purpose; instead, they were used to settle the outstanding dues of individuals related to the company’s chairperson and of other borrower companies within the same group.
Nepal Rastra Bank determined that this constituted an offense related to loan misuse under the Banking Offense and Punishment Act and wrote to the CIB to initiate an investigation.
Based on this, the CIB obtained an arrest warrant from the Patan High Court and arrested Sharma on Asar 30. The CIB stated that Sharma, a resident of Tilottama-4, Rupandehi, is the Chairman of Asian Village Resort Pvt. Ltd.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has initiated an investigation into the leadership of Prabhu Bank, ranging from its directors and senior managers to the CEO. On November 8 (Kartik 22), the CIB raided the bank’s head office in Bijulibazar and seized important documents.
Subsequently, the CIB took into custody—and proceeded with the investigation against—key figures including the then-Chairman of the Prabhu Group, Devi Prakash Bhattachan; CEO Ashok Sherchan; Deputy CEO Maniram Pokharel; and other high-ranking officials.
Devi Prakash Bhattachan, the former chairman of the Prabhu Group, has been accused of misappropriating over NPR 980 million from Prabhu Management Company. Bhattachan, Sherchan, and others were arrested following a complaint filed by Kusum Lama, the chairperson of Prabhu Management.
An investigation into the financial misappropriation linked to the Prabhu Group is currently underway. Preliminary investigations have revealed that approximately NPR 1 billion was misappropriated from Prabhu Management Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between the then-chairman Bhattachan and director Kusum Lama.
It has been found that between Mangsir 2069 and Jestha 2081, Chairman Bhattachan and CEO Sherchan—through Prabhu Management Pvt. Ltd.—appointed nearly 3,000 cooperatives as ‘super agents’ for money transfer services, collected approximately one billion rupees as security deposits, and subsequently misappropriated the funds.
