Six individuals, including an airport customs officer, have been arrested in connection with a major gold smuggling case at Tribhuvan Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal as reported by the Revenue Investigation Department. With this, the number of people arrested in the gold smuggling case has reached 16.
Earlier,, ten people, including a Chinese national, were arrested in relation to the smuggling of nearly 100 kilograms gold that passed out of Tribhuvan International Airport’s customs without being detected on the night of July 18.
The arrested individuals include Customs Officer Santosh Chand, Purchaser and Checker Kumar Dhakal, and X-ray operator Saroj Shrestha. They were taken into custody on Sunday after the customs department suspended them on Saturday. The suspension came as a result of their alleged negligence in passing the gold inspection despite appearing suspicious on the X-ray machine.
According to sources, further investigations are underway, leading to the arrests of customs agents Yadavshankar Parajuli, Sudarshan Gautam, and Rukmina Subba on the same day.
The case came to light after the Revenue Investigation Department received a tip-off. Acting on the information, the authorities intercepted around 100 kilograms of gold last Tuesday, which was being smuggled out of the country by concealing it in brake shoes on a Cathay Pacific Airlines flight from Hong Kong.
In addition to the six arrested individuals, the department had previously detained ten others involved in the smuggling operation. Among them, one is a Chinese citizen, and another is an Indian citizen.
To ascertain the exact quantity of gold seized, the Revenue Investigation Department sent the confiscated gold to the Taksar branch of Nepal Rastra Bank on Thursday. However, the exact quantity of gold is yet to be confirmed.
The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) recovered the gold that was hidden in brake shoes of scooter and motorbikes after it had passed the TIA customs office from Sinamangal in Kathmandu. The smugglers were found escaping the TIA customs and used a cab with registration number Ba 2 Ja 2324 to flee away with the smuggled precious metal.
The arrest of these individuals is expected to shed light on the extent of the smuggling network and the measures needed to prevent such illegal activities in the future. The Revenue Investigation Department is continuing its efforts to combat gold smuggling and maintain the integrity of the airport customs procedures. Further developments in the case are awaited as the investigation progresses.
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