Nepal's oldest industrial house and the court cases facing its chairman, Shekhar Golchha

In the early 1930s, by the family's own account, Ramlal Golchha walked from Biratnagar to Kathmandu to persuade the Rana government to register an industry in a country that had none, Hulas Foods, one of the group's companies, says on its website. Nearly a century later his grandson Shekhar Golchha, chairman of the Golchha Group and a former head of Nepal's main business federation, is a defendant in criminal cases brought by state prosecutors.

The latest came on 9 October, when the Kathmandu District Government Attorney's Office named him among 18 defendants in a case under the Insurance Act, The Kathmandu Post reported. It was the sixth case to arise from an investigation centred on the businessman Deepak Bhatta, the Post reported. Golchha denies wrongdoing. A charge sheet is an accusation by the state, not a finding of guilt, and no court has yet ruled on any of the cases.

A jute trader and the first factory

Ramlal Golchha started in 1931 with a trading house in Biratnagar, Hansraj Hanuman Mal, later renamed Hansraj Hulaschand, which exported raw jute to mills in India, New Business Age reported. The magazine said he later shipped jute to Europe and was the first to export through formal banking channels.

The family's name is tied to Biratnagar Jute Mills, which Business 360 described as founded by Ramlal Golchha in 1936 and which Hulas Foods calls the first industry of Nepal. New Business Age gave the year as 1937 and said the mill was set up with support from an Indian jute mill owner, a reminder that Nepal's first factory drew on capital and expertise from across the border. Biratnagar, a town on the plains of eastern Nepal close to India, remained the family's base.

Three generations, a hundred companies

Ramlal's sons, Hansraj and Hulaschand, widened the business into new sectors, New Business Age reported. Hulas Foods says it began as Hulas Rice Mill in the early 1960s. New Business Age listed Hulas Steel Industries, founded in 1981 with a Swiss partner, Him Electronics, which began operating in 1988, and the Hansraj Hulaschand distributorship that brought Bajaj motorcycles to Nepal among the group's businesses. In 2018 the magazine reported that members of the family ran more than 100 companies with about 20,000 employees and a combined annual turnover of Rs 45bn, about $290m at roughly Rs 155 to the dollar.

The family also helped build Nepal's organised business lobby. Hulaschand Golchha drafted the first statute of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the country's largest private-sector umbrella body, and was its vice president in 1990, Business 360 reported. His son Shekhar, the third generation, became FNCCI president in November 2020 after serving as senior vice president, a post whose holder moves up without an election under the federation's rules, Business 360 reported. He held the office until 2023, The Himalayan Times reported, and under his leadership the group expanded into automobiles, electronics, hospitality, banking and finance, the paper said.

Golchha also took a leading role in insurance. Himalayan Reinsurance was established in July 2021 with Rs 10bn, about $65m, in paid-up capital, The Kathmandu Post reported, and Golchha became its chairman. Reinsurers take on part of the risks written by ordinary insurance companies. Nepal's first domestic reinsurer, Nepal Reinsurance Company, was set up in 2014 and was Himalayan Reinsurance's main competitor, the Post reported.

From the boardroom to three courts

The trouble began with share trades. The Department of Money Laundering Investigation alleges that about Rs 3.73bn, about $24m, was diverted from five listed companies, including Himalayan Reinsurance, to buy shares in competing companies, The Kathmandu Post reported in April. Investigators said Golchha, Bhatta and three other businessmen had agreed in July 2025 to pool money to trade shares, the Post reported. Bhatta, chairman of Infinity Holdings, has said his credentials with a stockbroker were misused, the Post reported.

Golchha resigned as chairman of Himalayan Reinsurance on 9 March, The Himalayan Times reported. He told The Kathmandu Post that the transactions never came "before the board as a formal agenda item", that he resigned on the day he found out, and that he received no personal benefit.

On 23 April the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police detained him over alleged violations of the Securities Act, following a preliminary report by the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), the market regulator, The Himalayan Times reported. On 4 May the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail or security, ruling on a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife that investigators should have demanded bail before seeking to hold him in custody, The Himalayan Times reported. He was later released on bail by the Kathmandu District Court in the securities and insurance investigations, Insurance Khabar reported.

In June prosecutors filed cases in several courts. A case under the Insurance Act named 42 people, including Golchha, and sought Rs 2.73bn, about $17.6m, from him and nine others in connection with Himalayan Reinsurance, Setopati reported. A money-laundering case at the Special Court, which hears major financial and corruption cases, sought Rs 525m, about $3.4m, from him, Setopati reported. The same case accused him of using Himalayan Reinsurance funds to buy shares through a broker, Khabarhub reported.

On 11 August the Special Court released him on bail of Rs 10m, about $65,000, while the case proceeds, Insurance Khabar reported. In his statement to the court Golchha denied any involvement in illegal activity, saying his role as chairman was non-executive and that he did not know how the company's funds were being used, Khabarhub reported. He said he sent the Rs 525m at the request of the businessman Sulav Agrawal and later asked for it back when the market turned, Khabarhub reported.

The October case is narrower: it concerns Himalayan Reinsurance money routed through an insurance broker and seeks Rs 450.7m, about $2.9m, in damages, The Kathmandu Post reported. Each case is an accusation that the defendants can contest in court, and none has reached a verdict.

What the cases mean for Nepali business

The cases reach well beyond one family. Two former chairs of the Nepal Insurance Authority, the insurance regulator, were among those charged in June, Setopati reported. Himalayan Reinsurance has itself gone to court, suing Bhrikuti Stock Broking at the Kathmandu District Court to recover funds, The Kathmandu Post reported, and SEBON issued the broker a show-cause notice, the Post said. For investors in listed insurers, the questions now before the courts concern how a company's money can move through the stock market without its board's approval, and who answers for it. Readers new to the market can find how trading and brokers work in our guide to NEPSE.

For the Golchha Group, the cases test a reputation built over nine decades and three generations. Golchha's defence, set out in court, is that a non-executive chairman cannot be held responsible for transactions he says he did not know about. Whether the courts accept that will be decided at trial. Until then he remains on bail, required to attend regular court dates, Khabarhub reported, and no court has found him guilty of anything.