CPN (Maoist Center) Vice-chairman and former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been arrested.
Inspector General of Police Basanta Kunwar told Setopati that Mahara was arrested from Kapilvastu on Monday morning.
“He has been arrested, he will be brought to Kathmandu today,” Kunwar said.
According to a source, Mahara was arrested from the home of Maoist Center leader Wakil Musalman at Dhakadhai, where he had gone to have lunch.
Police said that they are preparing to hand him over to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
Mahara has already been taken to the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa, from where he will be flown to Kathmandu.
According to the source, police are preparing to fly him to Kathmandu on a Yeti Airlines plane.
Police had been keeping a watch on Mahara since early Monday morning.
Mahara has been accused of involvement in gold smuggling.
The Inquiry Commission on Gold Smuggling has concluded that Mahara should be tried for gold smuggling.
The CIB has received the commission's report, which was submitted to Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane on Thursday. The CIB had earlier released Mahara after making him sign necessary documents in the 9 kg gold smuggling case.
His son Rahul, meanwhile, is in custody in connection with the same case.
Mahara and his son Rahul came under investigation after police found that they were in contact with those involved in bringing nine kilograms of gold disguised as e-cigarettes in December 2022.
In its investigation report on the 9 kg gold smuggling case submitted to the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, the CIB of Nepal Police had included a link chart which also showed that Mahara was in contact with Daojin Wang, the alleged mastermind behind the gold smuggling.
The customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport had confiscated 730 e-cigarettes from a Chinese national named Li Hansong who arrived on a Fly Dubai flight on December 25, 2022.
When Li claimed that the e-cigarettes were brought for business purpose, Chief Customs Officer Mukti Prasad Shrestha had ordered confiscation of the e-cigarettes giving one to the Chinese national for the latter’s use pointing that goods brought for commercial purpose cannot be cleared from the passengers’ section.
The Chinese national, who was allowed to leave after confiscation of the e-cigarettes, left Nepal after staying here for a few days.
The Mahara father-son duo then contacted the chief customs officer and put pressure on him to release the e-cigarettes.
The authorities found out that the e-cigarettes were actually gold only after investigations when a staffer at the customs office realized that the e-cigarettes had been changed from the store.
A non-gazetted first-class official of TIA Customs Office Rewant Khadka and customs agent Dinesh Basnet had collaborated to change the e-cigarettes, extracted around nine kilograms of gold from the e-cigarettes and sold it for Rs 60 million by then.
The CIB then investigated and filed a case against five people after the incident came to light.
