KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu District Administration Office on Sunday remanded UCPN-Maoist lawmaker Lharkyal Lama to police custody for five days after he was arrested for keeping as many as 14 bullets in his bank locker.

SSP Bikram Singh Thapa, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, said police are investigating into the case, keeping the UCPN-Maoist lawmaker at the MPR custody in Teku.

Earlier this afternoon, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had found 14 bullets in his bank locker at the Nepal Investment Bank Limited in Darbarmarga.

The anti-corruption constitutional body was investigating into a money laundering case against the lawmaker, who was dragged in various controversies for last few years.

Meanwhile, police confirmed that Lama did not have any licence to keep firearms.

"Had he got any licence (to possess arms and ammunition)," SSP Thapa told THT Online over phone, "We would not have forwarded the process in this way."

Lama will be charged under the Arms and Ammunition Act, 1962, Thapa said.

Lama, a former CPN-UML leader, was later elected to the Constituent Assembly by the UCPN-Maoist to replace Shambhu Hajari Paswan after Supreme Court quashed the latter's CA membership.

He had briefly served the then CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal-led Cabinet as the State Minister for Finance in 2011. He was forced to resign following controversy over possessing Indian and Nepali passports and Tibetan refugee cards.

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• Maoist lawmaker Lharkyal Lama held after CIAA finds bullets in his bank locker

Arms and Ammunition Act

5. Prohibition to carry arms without a licence:

(1) No person shall carry arms without a licence or the terms and conditions as specified in the licence. (2) Assistant Sub-Inspector or the police officer above the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector or the Chief District Officer or the person assigned by him/her may arrest without warrant any person carrying arms without a licence or against this Act and seize arms from him/her possession. The police officer or the person assigned by the Chief District Officer arresting such person or seizing the arms shall produce the arrested person and the arms so seized before the Chief District Officer within twenty-four hours with the exclusion of the period of journey.

8. Prohibition to keep the arms and ammunition at a particular fixed place:

Government of Nepal may, by Notification in the Nepal Gazette, prohibit any person from keeping the specified arms and ammunition of any sort at the specified place.

20. Penalty: 

(2) In case a person committing .... offences shall be punished with imprisonment from three years up to five years or with fine from Rs 60,000 up to Rs 100,000 or with both:-

(c)To carry arms contrary to Section 5

(d)To keep in his/her possession or control the arms of any kind contrary to Section 8

(3) In case a person committing .... offences shall be punished with imprisonment from one year up to three years or with fine from Rs 20,000 up to Rs

100,000 or with both:-

(c) To keep in his/her possession or control ammunition contrary to Section