Kathmandu, December 6

Two employees of KL Dugar Group, who are facing charges of black-marketing of edible oil, have been remanded for five days.

Forty-one-year-old Aman Jauthan, in-charge of Jadibuti depot of Swastik Oil Industries, one of the flagship businesses of KL Dugar Group, and 46-year-old Pramod Raj Adhikari, manager of KL Dugar Group, were rounded up on Thursday with five trucks of edible oil, which they were planning to sell at higher rates than the existing market price. They were immediately remanded for three days.

“Following the expiry of the previous remand period, the Kathmandu District Court today allowed us to keep the duo in custody for five more days for interrogation,” Superintendent of Police at Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu Bishwo Raj Pokharel told The Himalayan Times.

The police, however, have not started interrogating the two so far. “We will begin that process soon,” Pokharel said.

Meanwhile, the police are also on the lookout for Kishan Lal Dugar, chairman of KL Dugar Group, and his son Naresh Dugar, vice chairman of the Group, who are at large since the arrest of two of their employees. These two have also been identified as defendants in the case of black-marketing.

The police are preparing to file a case of black-marketing against the four after they raided the warehouse of Swastik Oil Industries located at Jadibuti in Kathmandu, and took in control five trucks containing edible oil. Each packet of edible oil confiscated by the police contained price tag of Rs 320 per litre — double the actual retail price, according to the police.

Swastik Oil Industries had started raising prices of edible oil one-and-a-half months ago, when the market began witnessing shortage of the product following disruption in supply of daily essentials due to the Tarai unrest and blockade on Nepal-India border points. The company produces around 450 tonnes of soybean, hydrogenated vegetable, sunflower and palmolein oil per day under the brand names of Swastik, Dhara and Bigul.

KL Dugar Group is one of the prominent business houses in the country, which is engaged in businesses of edible oil, food grain, packaging, herbal extraction, hydropower, construction, and banking and finance.