Nepal: Six more packages being X-rayed for possible gold smuggling case

Kathmandu: Following the seizure of 1.5 quintals of metals, including gold, last week, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) is now looking into six parcels thought to contain smuggled yellow metal, The Kathmandu Post reported.

On Sunday, the investigation team formed by the department opened a few metal packs to examine if they contained smuggled gold. According to Nawaraj Adhikari, information officer at the DRI, it is challenging to prove the existence of gold in them with bare eyes, therefore the investigative team wants to run the metal boxes through an X-ray machine on Monday, he said to The Kathmandu Post.

Adhikari said two large machines could not be opened on Sunday and they would be opened with the help of mechanics on Monday.
On July 18, over a quintal of gold was seized concealed inside motorcycle brake shoes as the consignment was taken away in a taxi after getting customs clearances from the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Part of the gold seized during the raid by the DRI belonged to the Ready Trade. Six more metal packs were seized later, according to DRI, The Kathmandu Post reported.

In the past two months, the Ready Trade company has imported various metallic goods including brake shoes, shavers, and mechanical motors that weighed nearly two tonnes, The Kathmandu Post reported citing a local news report.
They were brought from Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

The latest seizure of smuggled gold suggests that the Tribhuvan International Airport continues to be the gateway for large-scale smuggling of gold. A 33 kg gold consignment busted in 2017 remains untraced ever since.

The gross weight of the consignment seized on July 18 was 155kg, including the motorcycle brake shoes and electric shavers, according to officials at the Mint division of the Nepal Rastra Bank, which has been entrusted with examining the metal.
The DRI has so far arrested 16 people in connection with the smuggling.
On Sunday, the DRI arrested six people including TIA customs officer Santosh Chanda, customs worker Kumar Dhakal and X-Ray technician Saroj Shrestha, according to the Kantipur report.

Customs agents Rukmila Subba, Sudarsan Gautam and Yadav Parajuli were also arrested.
As the X-ray machine deployed at the airport customs reportedly failed to detect the metal, authorities suspect the smugglers colluded with customs officials to get the smuggled gold pass undetected, The Kathmandu Post reported.
“It is highly unusual that the customs office failed to detect such a large quantity of gold,” Punya Bikram Khadka, director at the Department of Customs, told the Post earlier.

He said that the department was also investigating the lapses in customs clearance by suspending two of its officials involved in the process.
This story was published by Prithvi Man Shrestha. He is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery.