Police bust major gold smuggling racket

10 Mar 2015, Kathmandu - Police have busted a major gold smuggling ring that had long been moving contraband gold to the country from China. A special team from the KathmanduMetropolitan Police Crime Investigation Division has arrested nine people on gold smuggling charge, including some of the key figures in the racket.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pushkar Karki told the Post on Monday that two

core racket members Aakash Bajracharya of United Gold Mart in New Road, Kathmandu , and Bal Krishna Agrawal aka Bikky of Ilam are among the arrested. The other arrestees are Mohan Chaudhary of Lalitpur, Prabin Timilsina and Deuta Timilsina of Bhaktapur, Nanda Kishor Chaudhary of Bara, and Satya Narayan Chaudhary, Bishal Chaudhary and Ram Raj Chaudhary of Chitwan.

The other suspects Sawarmal Jodhani of Jhapa, Dhurba Timilsina of Sindhupalchok, Milan Tamang of Kathmandu , Shree Ram Chaudhary of Dharan, Jay Raj Bhatta of Kailali are still at large, SSP Karki said. He added that the arrested suspects will be investigated by the officials of the Department of Revenue Investigation and the Department of Money Laundering Investigation.

Police have long been criticised for failing to arrest the main persons involved in gold smuggling. A majority of the persons arrested on gold smuggling charge in the past were couriers who were paid to move the contraband gold from one place to another and knew very little about those who ran the enterprise.

SSP Karki said the latest crackdown has revealed the involvement of gold traders in smuggling.

A special police team was formed to investigate into gold smuggling racket in the country following the arrest of four persons in Lalitpur. In the wake, police raided the house of Prabin Timilsina and Deuta Timilsina in Bhaktapur and recovered four kilograms of illegal gold. Based on the information provided by the duo, police later held Bal Krishna Agrawal, Aakash Bajracharya and Mohan Chaudhary.

Following their arrest, SSP Karki claimed, the cases of gold smuggling via land declined sharply, though the flow of illegal gold through air route remains a problem.

It is said that the border area between Chinese autonomous region of Tibet and Nepal is a major route for smuggling of gold.

In the past three months, police recovered 7.59 kg contraband gold and three million rupees in cash with unknown source.