KATHMANDU: The Parliamentary Investigation Special Committee, formed to probe the cooperative fraud case, commenced its investigation on Tuesday.

The committee convened a meeting with the Cooperatives Ministry, the Cooperative Board, and other government officials to discuss the status of the troubled cooperatives, legal issues, and regulatory matters.

During the meeting, the Chairman of the Troubled Cooperatives Management Committee and the member secretary submitted a report on the 20 troubled cooperatives, according to Surya Thapa, the coordinator of the probe committee.

The committee also obtained information about an additional 29 problematic cooperatives from the Department of Cooperatives.

The committee further discussed with Minister of Land Management, Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation, Bal Ram Adhikari, regarding the government’s recent announcement to return up to Rs 500,000 of depositors’ money during unveiling the budget for Fiscal Year 2024/25.

Thapa assured that the investigation would be completed within the three-month timeframe.

The seven-member committee, led by CPN-UML leader Surya Bahadur Thapa, was established to investigate the case.

The committee includes two representatives each from the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML, and one representative each from the CPN-Maoist Center, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).

The members are Badri Prasad Pandey and Ishwari Devi Neupane from NC, Sarita Bhushal from CPN-UML, Lekh Nath Dahal from the Maoist Center, Shishir Khanal from RSP, and Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan from RPP.