Kathmandu, April 19

Police have arrested three persons, including a woman, for allegedly using returnee Nepali migrant workers to smuggle gold.

The suspects of the gold smuggling racket are Ratanlal Shrestha, 36, of Kathmandu, Lila Kumari Shrestha, 22, of Udayapur and Indra Sada, 20, of Siraha. The arrest of a migrant worker returning home from Qatar has exposed gold smuggling rackets operating from Gulf countries.

According to officials, a special team of Metropolitan Police Sector, Koteshwor, had arrested the trio from Koteshwor Chowk while they were heading to their destination on two motorcycles on Tuesday. Police seized five gold bangles weighing 250 grams without invoice.

During interrogation, they told police that they had received the ornaments from migrants workers, who returned from Qatar. The migrants workers used by the racketeers had managed to cross the customs at Tribhuvan International Airport with the gold by evading chargeable duties. However, police acted on a tip-off to apprehend the racketeers.

Some migrant workers returning to Nepal are being used as gold carriers, who are promised a wage of Rs 6,000 per gold bangle. The migrant workers are paid by the racketeers from the Gulf via wire after the consignment of gold is received by the concerned person in Nepal.

As racketeers make a profit of around Rs 7,000 per tola gold when they succeed in smuggling it into Nepal,  they have been luring gullible migrant workers into carrying the precious metal in small consignments, read the investigation report.

According to a figure of the TIA, customs officials and police seize an average of two kilos of undeclared gold being smuggled into Nepal from the Gulf countries every month.

In many cases, the gold carriers are believed to have managed to cross the customs with gold. On an average, two consignments of gold are seized by police from the premises of TIA every week when the carriers are handing over the precious metal to the concerned recipients. An oversea returnee is not allowed to carry gold exceeding 50 grams in the form of ornament and the concerned persons should produce its invoice, police said.