Baglung, May 25 -- Two years after the collapse of Image Savings and Credit Cooperative, over 1,500 depositors in Baglung are still waiting for their savings to be returned, despite the arrest and imprisonment of its founder and officials.

Dev Kumar Nepali, mayor of Dhorpatan Municipality and the cooperative's founding chair, was arrested in India in September 2024 and has since been remanded in custody in Baglung under court order. However, victims say his imprisonment has done little to address their financial suffering.

Tirtha Paudel, who once worked in the sanitation department of Baglung Municipality, deposited around Rs3.5 million he received in grants into the cooperative, lured by an 18 percent annual interest.

"We were promise...