CIB Raid in NCC Bank Ltd., 13 staffs arrested

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police - CIB has arrested 13 individuals including committee members following a raid in the board meeting of Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC) bank. The arrested individuals were identified as Bishnu Prasad Dhital, Ichhya Bahadur Tamang, Durgadutta Joshi, Suwarna Raj Bhandari, Madhuwan Lal Shrestha, Rishiraj Bhatt. Likewise, Ramchandra Basaula, Bikash Shrestha, Sagar Neupane, Maan Bahadur Raut, Binitmani Upadhyaya, Mohan Kharel and Sudip Thapa were also arrested. Dhital is the incumbent chairperson of Apex Development Bank while others are employees and operators of the same Apex Bank. They have been arrested in accusation of being involved in a financial scam worth Rs 1 Billion and 510 million of Banks money. Four different development banks were merged in NCC bank, which includes Apex, Infrastructre, Supreme and International Development bank. The Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal Rastra Bank) has started its investigation following a complaint that Apex bank had been lending out money unregulated despite the initiation of merger procedure. Apex bank has been accused of over-valuating collateral on loans and also lending out money to black-listed debtors. The CIB informed that the arrested individuals will be put under trial under the Banking Offence and Punishment Act. The Central Bank has requested the investigation sending a letter to the CIB regarding the issue of unregulated loan flow against standard practices. CIB had put on an active investigation on the issue based on bank's directions.