KATHMANDU, AUGUST 30
Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police has arrested Rahul Mahara, son of former speaker of the House of Representative Krishna Bahadur Mahara, in connection to the smuggling of nine kg gold through electronic cigarettes popularly known as vapes.
Superintendent of Police Nawaraj Adhikari, CIB Spokesperson, confirmed that Rahul had been arrested and the police have started the investigation.
"We have started the investigation into the case, as permitted by the court," SP Adhikari said. Kathmandu District Court later granted five more days of judicial custody of Rahul, allowing the police to investigate the case.
On December 25, 2022, the customs officials of Tribhuvan International Airport had confiscated around 730 e-cigarettes that was flown into Nepal via Hong Kong through Fly Dubai Flight. The customs officials had not cleared the customs of the vapes after it was brought from the passengers' section while the goods brought for commercial purpose should come from separate customs section. The Chinese national who was allowed entrance stayed here for a few days and left the country.
However, after vapes were not cleared from the customs for longer time, the Chinese racketeers reached influential Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara to free it. Mahara, in public function, had said that he had held telephonic conversation with the Chinese national accused in the gold smuggling case but he knew him only as a fruit dealer and he knew nothing about the gold smuggling case.
The CIB's investigation revealed that Mahara duo had held telephonic conversation with Chinese racketeers for 256 times. Mahara, later accepted the fact that he had called airport authorities inquiring about the product. However, police did not name the former speaker as defendant in the case. Sometime later Mahara himself talked in public about calling airport authorities to know about the case. "I asked them if the product was illegal or not. I asked them if it was not illegal why wouldn't they free the product following due process like charging tax or put them under auction," Mahara had said at a public function.
Later on, some of the vapes were stolen from within the customs office, which police soon recovered. A total of nine kilogram of gold was recovered from the vapes. Meanwhile, Rahul today took to Facebook saying he appeared before the police after questions were raised about his involvement in the case.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
