A case has been filed against four people including Rahul Mahara, son of former speaker and CPN (Maoist Center) Vice-chairman Krishna Bahadur Mahara, over the smuggling of nine kilograms of gold in December 2022.
The District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu, registered the case against Rahul and three others on Wednesday.
Besides Rahul, 39-year-old Lokendra Kumar Paudel, 39-year-old Belgian national Dawa Tsering, and 57-year-old Nima Gurung of Bauddha, Kathmandu Metropolitan City-6, have been made defendants in the case.
Paudel, who is originally from Sarlahi and currently resides in Sitapaila, Nagarjun Municipality-4, is the driver of Daojin Wang, the alleged mastermind behind recent cases of gold smuggling in Nepal. Tsering is in custody following his arrest in connection with the smuggling of 60 kg gold in July. Gurung is still at large.
The DGAO has charged the four with criminal breach of trust, smuggling, and organized crime.
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 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 Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) had then investigated filed a case against five people after the incident came to light.
