Industrialist Amatya behind bars for duping business partners

The police today arrested industrialist Piyush Bahadur Amatya for allegedly siphoning off Rs 40 million from his business partners. Amatya allegedly duped Dip Basnet and Alok Rauniyar by luring them into investing money in Pokhara-based Fulbari Resort.
Amatya, who is the head of Amatya Enterprises (Amatya Group) and Mt Everest Brewery Pvt Ltd, is promoter of the resort. Amatya Enterprises is the exclusive representative of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in Nepal.
An investigating official at MPCD said, "According to the complaint filed by Basnet and Rauniyar, they invested in Amatya-owned Fishtail Pvt Ltd through Sanjeev Tuladhar of Dallu and Rajat Gurubacharya of Lazimpat to run a casino.” However, the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation denied permission to Fishtail to operate the casino in the resort.
“Though Amatya received money from Tuladhar and Gurubacharya on behalf of Basnet and Rauniyar, he allegedly refused to return it even after the ministry decision,” the official told The Himalayan Times. Earlier MPCD had arrested Tuladhar and Gurubacharya on fraud charge.
MPCD officials claimed that business and political leaders put pressure on them to find an amicable solution on behalf of Amatya.
The issue was also discussed in the Ministry of Home Affairs later in the day. Home Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, IGP Rabindra Pratap Shah, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kuber Singh Rana and MPCD Chief Hemant Malla Thakuri were present at the meeting.
Pyush Bahadur Amatya is the chief person of this group. This group has defaulted the largest amount, 3 billion 621 million rupees alone from the banks. The amount is exactly two times more than the amount of the second largest defaulter. And it is also the group with least chance of loan recovery. The group dealt with Electrical Equipment, Supplies and Component Manufacturing.
Besides, the large amount of money was spent on Fulbari Resort and Spa at Pokhara. It was one of the largest business groups in the country. This group owns Amatya Enterprises that is an exclusive representative of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Japan, General Trading & Engineering, Nepal Power Eng Co, Everest Ice Creams, Mt Everest Brewery and Amtronics.
It’s largest investment project is Fulbari Resort and Spa. The once shut Fulbari Resort and Spa has recently been handed over to a Resort Management Company named Blue Flag Nepal. However, none of these business are doing well now.
The banks have predicted that it will be most difficult to recover loan from this group. And the Amatya family is still living a lavish life.