Case against EIC accused filed at court

KATHMANDU:

A case has been filed at the Kathmandu District Court against those accused in fund embezzlement at Everest Insurance Company (EIC).

The Office of District Attorney has filed a case at Kathmandu District Court against EIC’s former CEO Kebal Krishna Shrestha, assistant general manager Anil Dhungel and two chartered accountants — Jagadish Agrawal and Gopal Agrawal — for their involvement in swindling funds from the company.

“The public prosecutor had filed the case and a bench of judge Swikrit Parajuli will be hearing the case that will begin on Sunday,” informed registrar at Kathmandu District Court Narayan Regmi.

All four of them were arrested by Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Burea in the course of the last one month. The police were asked to look into the company’s financial undertaking after the Insurance Board (IB) took over the management of the company in October.

“The hearing will decide on whether to keep the defendants in custody or release them on bail,” pointed out Regmi. He further added that since the case has the involvement of financial institutions, the judge might refer the case to Patan Appellate Court’s Commercial Bench as well.

The public prosecutor had filed the case under financial fraud as the defendants had committed fraud by taking unauthorised payments and issuing insurance policies without receiving premiums.

The initial investigation of IB had discovered that former CEO Shrestha had made unauthorised payments worth Rs 25.09 million. The subsequent investigation by the police led to arrests of assistant general manager Dhungel and the two auditors for aiding the fund misappropriation.

Along with the four accused, IB had also sought the arrest of the company’s former chairman Rajendra Khetan for getting the settlement of the claims for the policies of his other companies without paying any premium.

IB had first started the investigation of EIC’s financial management back in August 2012 after the company was found to have paid insurance claims worth Rs 42 million made by Himalayan Snax even before the surveyor had filed the final report regarding damages. Himalayan Snax is also promoted by Khetan who was chairman of the insurance company’s board at that time.

IB is pursuing criminal charges for Khetan calling his actions fraudulent, however, CIB has yet to arrest him. The company is currently being run by a team deployed by IB who suspended then CEO Shrestha, firm’s board and former chairman Khetan in October.

Source: THT