TIA still a haven for gold smugglers

By Nayak Paudel,Kathmandu, July 21: Many had expected that the smuggling of gold in large quantities via Tribhuvan International Airport had stopped after the authorities in 2018 busted the gold smuggling racket led by mastermind Chudamani Upreti.

However, an incident on Tuesday has shown that the smuggling of the precious yellow metal from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) was going on unabated with a new modus operandi.

According to the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), they confiscated a large haul of gold outside the TIA Cargo Office on Tuesday after the metal passed undetected through Customs.

“The DRI had received a special tipoff several days ago and acted upon it without coordinating with concerned other authorities due to fear of information leakage. Six individuals have been arrested till now for their alleged involvement,” said Nawaraj Adhikari, information officer for the DRI.

The DRI team had kept surveillance over the Cargo Office when they stopped a taxi driven by Ashok Lama after it left the office premises. 

“The taxi had cartons of brake shoes of automobiles. The shoes had gold hidden inside them. The seized pieces of the yellow metal have been taken to the Mint Division of the Nepal Rastra Bank, Babar Mahal for confirmation,” said Adhikari.

It is expected that the seized metal would weigh around a quintal (100 kilograms). If so, it will be the biggest confiscation of gold in Nepal. 

Officials informed that the items in which the gold was hidden had arrived on July 15 from Hong Kong, China, on a Cathay Pacific flight. 

“The brake shoes were ordered by Dilip Bhujel-owned Ready Trade Pvt. Ltd. An investigation showed that it has not been long since the company was created,” said Adhikari.

Alongside the taxi driver Lama and Dilip, the DRI arrested Ram Kumar Bhujel, Harka Raj Rai, Rajendra Kumar Rai and Thuptin Thsering, an Indian national. A 10-day judicial custody has been sought against the arrested persons, officials informed.

“After the taxi driver was arrested and interrogated, we came across five other individuals involved in smuggling,” said Adhikari.

A senior police officer who was involved in the investigation of the 33.5-kg gold smuggling case of Gore informed that the smugglers were using new methods of smuggling. According to him, earlier, the gold was smuggled by means of passengers, but, nowadays, the cargo office was being misused.

Gore’s racket was found to have smuggled around four tonnes of gold in the span of four years from the TIA.

Recently, it was also found that nine kilograms of gold, which was smuggled keeping inside vapes (electric cigarettes), was sold illegally by some customs officials. 

Nepal Police informed that smuggled gold worth Rs. 974,739,990 was seized in the fiscal year 2021/22. The seized amount does not contain the amount of gold confiscated by Customs Office. 

Customs solely responsible 

The DRI officials informed that an operation to find a large quantity of gold was kept secret because of the chances of information leakage. It led the DRI to not seek support from the Customs as well as Nepal Police.

According to the DRI, there was a chance of backstabbing at a time when at least 100 kilograms of gold had passed through Customs without any obstruction. Customs-related act provisions that the Customs is solely responsible for surveilling goods entering the country from abroad. 

“Nepal Police only checks passengers and goods before they leave the country. Customs checks the ones that arrive from abroad. We have no officers at the Cargo Office because it is not our jurisdiction,” said Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Shyam Lal Gyanwali, chief of the Kathmandu Valley Police Office (KVPO). The KVPO overlooks the TIA Security Office alongside other Valley-based police units.

Moreover, AIGP Gyanwali, informed that they were neither involved in the recent seizure of gold nor its further investigation. 

Nevertheless, since the incident showed that some irregularities took place at the cargo office allowing the gold pass undetected, the Department of Customs has formed a high-level committee to investigate the issue.

Officials at the TIA Customs informed that the employees were being investigated.

“We have the jurisdiction to investigate the case solely. We are currently in the preliminary phase of the investigation and plan to seek help from other authorities in time,” said Adhikari.

Meanwhile, the TIA Customs informed that they had started inspecting the imported items more strictly after the incident.