RPP-Prajatantrik leader Bhujung Gurung was the mastermind behind robbery of 33 kilograms of gold smuggled through Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the probe committee formed under Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry Ishwor Raj Paudel has concluded.
"It is apparent that Gurung's gang robbed the gold," a committee source told Setopati.
Punya Prasad Lama, who was arrested after murder of Sanam Shakya, has claimed in his statement that the gold was robbed by Gurung's gang. "I was going to Anamnagar with Sanu Wan carrying the gold. Gurung's men cam and robbed us," Lama has claimed in the statement.
Wan was a confidant of Gurung, according to the source, and used to report to Gurung about the date and quantity of smuggled gold. Gurung, the source claimed, hatched the plot to rob the gold based on Wan's information.
The men sent by Gurung were bouncers at dance bars in Thamel.
The five bouncers stopped the duo at Anamnagar. "We are police from Gaushala. Where is the gold?" they asked and took the gold away, according to the source. They went away asking the duo to go to Gaushala.
The source claimed that the men went to Thailand for holidays a few days after robbing the gold. They stopped coming to work, according to a youth who used to work together with them. "They used to say they are tired of the job of bouncer and would go to Thailand to freshen up," the youth told Setopati. "The erstwhile bouncers now leave tips in bars after returning from Thailand."
The men used to say they will play games and not work, and there is a lot of money a few days before robbery of the gold, the youth added.
Gurung and Chuda Mani Uprety, aka Gore, grew apart after robbery of the gold, and Gurung refused to meet Gore.
"When Gore's men questioned brother of Gurung's wife Tesring Wangel Ghale, aka Debitor Doctor, about the gold one day, he said his brother-in-law Gurung would know everything about that," Lama has said before the probe committee.
The majority of mules during torture had said Gurung's men robbed the gold. Gore had even made video, that has since been made public, of the confessions.
Lama has claimed that Wan, who was mysteriously killed after a collision with a tanker inside TIA, also told him that Gurung's men robbed the gold.
Gore suspected Sanam Shakya, who came to Kathmandu from Biratngar to meet his girlfriend without informing Gore on the day the gold was robbed, and concluded that Shakya came to Kathmandu to rob the gold as Shakya had lied that he was still in Biratnagar when Gore phoned him after knowing of robbery.
Gore had warned to not meet his girlfriend fearing that she may leak information but Shakya would meet her without knowledge of Gore.
Gore's men took Shakya to a jungle in Morang and tortured him with electric shocks. Shakya died in course of torture.
The probe committee's investigation has revealed that Indian Mohan Kumar Agrawal, known as MK, was the owner of the smuggled gold.
