Obstructing Rabi: Freedom from the Legal Web of the Oli Government

Decision by the Attorney General to Withdraw Charges of Organized Crime and Money Laundering Against Rabi

Exclusive: With the decision of the Office of the Attorney General of the Sushila Karki government—formed amid the heat of the Gen-Z movement—to withdraw the charges of organized crime and money laundering that had been filed against Rastriya Swatantra Party Chair Rabi Lamichhane with the ill intent of blocking him from politics by the Oli government, which had already been weakened by the Gen-Z movement, Rabi Lamichhane has been freed from the legal web of political retaliation. Following this government decision, the District Government Attorneys’ Offices in Kaski, Rupandehi, Kathmandu, and Parsa will now have to withdraw the organized crime and money-laundering cases that were pursued against Rabi under the directives of the Oli government.

Devaraj Ghimire, an Oli loyalist who became Speaker through the UML quota, had suspended Rabi Lamichhane from his parliamentary position, arguing that merely because the police and government prosecutors had filed a money-laundering case in the Pokhara High Court, Section 27 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act provides for the automatic suspension of the parliamentary position of the person charged.

It was only after the coordination between the prosecution launched by the then Oli government—through the Office of the Attorney General and its subordinate government attorneys—and the immediate suspension process initiated by Oli loyalist Speaker Ghimire that the public came to realize Oli’s covert maneuver to remove Rabi from politics altogether.