Kathmandu, March 10

The arrest of a migrant worker returning home from Qatar has exposed gold smuggling rackets operating from the Gulf countries.

Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala, on Thursday arrested Dilip Shahi, 40, of Kathmandu with 158.27 grams of gold from Sinamangal leading to arrest of two others — Mohammad Sahib Ansari, 26, of India and currently residing in Kathmandu, and Sunita Khadgi, 27, of Parsa  separately.

During interrogation, Shahi told the police that he had received the gold, which was in the form of three bangles, from Ansari and was going to hand over the ornaments to Khadgi. Ansari, who had recently arrived in Kathmandu from Qatar, 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 him and others.

According to police, Ansari was used by Khadgi’s husband (name undisclosed) in Qatar to carry the gold to Nepal and give it to Shahi. The final recipient of the gold was Khadgi. “Ansari said many migrant workers returning to Nepal were being used as gold carriers. Khadgi’s husband had promised him a wage of Rs 6,000 per gold bangle,” said a police official. 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.

Police investigation shows that Khadgi’s husband has smuggled gold into Nepal for more than 13 times over a period of few years by using migrant workers as carriers. “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 the 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 kg 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. Earlier, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had expressed concern about the misuse of the facility provided to oversea returnees to legally possess 50 grams of gold.