KATHMANDU: Police on Thursday said seven persons were held on charge of smuggling 15 kilo gram of gold from Kathmandu and Dhanusha district recently.

Issuing a press statement today, the Central Investigation Bureau said three suspects were arrested in Kathmandu and four others in Dhanusha in cordination with the District Police Office Dhanusha.

Acting on a tip-off, a sleuth from the CIB, frisked the rented house of Pemba Dorje Sherpa at Samakhushi Area in Tokha Municipality-11 yesterday.

Police recovered 12 kg gold hidden inside a rack and other 2 kg gold inside other rack in the room, altogether 14 biscuit pieces of gold were seized, according to police.

After interrogation, police arrested two other suspects 38-year-old Dependra Thapa of Bhaktapur district and 39-year-old Saroj Thapa of Baneshwor, KMC-10 from assorted locations in the Valley.

Four other suspects, 38-year-old Bishnu Gautam of Panchkhal in Kavre district, 34-year-old Rajendra Khatri, Rabin Khatri of Bhaktapur district and 38-year-old Deepak Kumar Sah of Dhanusha Janakpur Sub Metropolitan City-7 were arrested in Dhanusha district, yesterday.

The four suspects were on their way to Dhanusha with a consignment of 1kg gold to smuggle to India, as stated in the statement.

Police also seized a Volkswagen car (Ba 10 Cha 4193), scooter, US Dollar 600 and Chinese Yuan 1199 from their possession.

Police were tip-off about the racket being involved in smuggling gold from Nepal-Tibet border points of Rasuwa and Tatopani border points with the motive of selling in Nepal and smuggling to India, it said in the statement.

The suspects were presented before the Kathmandu District Court today, which remanded them for 7 days in custody.

Meanwhile, the CIB is preparing to charge them under the organised crime.