KATHMANDU, AUGUST 16
Police have arrested four more Chinese nationals in connection with the gold smuggling racket from different places of Kathmandu.
Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police, which is leading the investigation in the gold smuggling racket, arrested the Chinese nationals on the ground that they could lead to the actual owner of the gold that was seized.
Among the arrested are Tian Mi, Wen Tong, Ding Sheg Sa and Li Nengkai.
Nepal Police spokesperson DIG Kuber Kadayat said that they have received permission to hold the accused in judicial custody and are investigating the case in detail.
"Our investigation is targeted at finding out the true owner of the gold and to bust the smuggling racket," Kadayat said.
On July 19, the Department of Revenue Investigation had recovered some boxes of motorbike brake shoes outside the customs office at Tribhuvan International Airport with a gross weight of 155 kilograms. The smugglers had concealed the gold inside the brake shoes, which was at first thought to be 100 kilograms. The Mint Division of Nepal Rastra Bank, after extracting the gold, revealed that the actual weight of gold was 60 kilograms and 716 grams.
Earlier the racket was investigated by the DoRI. Later, the case was taken over by the CIB on the ground that the gold smuggling racket was inter-country and it fell under organised crime.
So far, 21 persons have been arrested in relation to the smuggling racket, including customs employees, customs agents, drivers, middle men and the people under whose company name the brake shoes were imported. Police and authorities, however, are still unable to reach the real owner of the gold.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 17, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
