Kathmandu. The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has arrested the directors of the then Century Bank. The CIB, along with former Chairman of Century Bank Rajesh Shrestha, the then members of the Board of Directors, Sunil Kumar Neupane, Prof. Dr. Geeta Pradhan, Ramesh Kumar Niraula, Ran Bahadur Shrestha, Rajesh Kumar Dali, Umakumari Shrestha, Abhishek Bajracharya who is also the director of Prabhu Bank and Chief of CAD Section of Century Shivgopal Risal was arrested.

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police (CIB) has said that they have been arrested for their involvement in providing more loans by keeping low-value mortgages. The CIB says that they will be investigated on the matter. CIB has said that an investigation is being conducted against them as per the Banking Offenses and Punishment Act, 2064.

The CIB had arrested the banker for providing more loans on low-value securities. The CIB claimed that although the value of the collateral to be kept as security while providing loans is equal to Rs. According to CIB, the loan investment is Rs 9741 lakh 70 thousand more than the value of the mortgage. However, the banker protested that the employee was arrested ignoring the board of directors who decided to give this loan. The media also broadcast and published news content on the same topic with priority.

In any bank and financial institution, a limit has been set so that employees who lead the credit department, DCEO and CEO are allowed to disburse loans of a certain amount. It is the practice of the board of directors of commercial banks to give the bank's CEO the authority to grant a loan of at least 250 million to 1 billion rupees. According to Century Bank sources at the time, the board of directors had given the authority to invest loans up to a maximum of 75 million rupees to the CEO in that bank. The board of directors had authorized the CEO to invest a total of 750 million rupees in loans of 450 million rupees funded and 300 million rupees unfunded.

Earlier, CIB had arrested 10 bankers including the then CEO of Century and now senior DCEO of Prabhu Bank, Manoj Neupanle, alleging that the bank had provided loans of Rs 974.1 million more than the mortgage valuation. The CIB had arrested 10 bankers including Neupane and Tulsi Gautam, former CEO of Century Bank. Rajesh Bhandari, Dilip Baral, Subas Bahadur Shrestha, Anupama Shrestha Manandhar, Savin Ghimire, Raman Shrestha, Dipesh Pradhan and Sunil Basnet, who were working in Century Bank at that time, were detained and investigated by the police. Later, the police released them on their appearance.

Banker staff feeling safeside 

Earlier, the bankers were seen in the frontline regarding the misappropriation and misuse of bank loans. If the bank loan could not be recovered, all the burden would fall on the employee's head. However, a banker said that even though this matter was small, the employees were highly praised. According to that banker, since the director also participates in the bank's loan disbursement process, this issue sends a message that the director should also be a party to the proceedings.

The bank gave the loan to four companies led by Ravindra Chaulagai, chairman of Deurali multi-purpose cooperative. It was also criticized that the CIB arrested the bank employees while shadowing the directors who signed the decision for the 2 billion loan investment to Chaulagai.