By Our Reporter
Many years ago, serial killer Charles Shobraj had said that he could pass even an elephant from the customs of the Tribhuvan International Airport. Now months after Shobraj returned to France after spending years in a cell in Kathmandu, the situation of TIA has not been different. It was evident from the confiscation of over 100 kilograms of gold that got passed through the TIA customs on Tuesday last week.
The news of the confiscation of such a huge amount of gold from outside the TIA shocked many because they had expected that the smuggling of gold in large quantities via the TIA had stopped after the crackdown on the gold smuggling racket led by mastermind Chudamani Upreti.
However, an incident on Tuesday last week has shown that the smuggling of gold from the TIA was going on unabated with a new modus operandi.
According to the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), it received a special tipoff several days ago and acted upon it without coordinating with other concerned authorities due to fear of information leakage.
The DRI team had kept surveillance over the Cargo Office when they stopped a taxi driven by Ashok Lama after it left the office premises. The taxi had cartons of brake shoes of automobiles. The shoes had gold hidden inside them. The seized pieces of the yellow metal have been taken to the Mint Division of the Nepal Rastra Bank, Babar Mahal for confirmation, said the officials.
Officials informed that the items in which the gold was hidden had arrived on July 15 from Hong Kong, China, on a Cathay Pacific flight.
“The brake shoes were ordered by Dilip Bhujel-owned Ready Trade Pvt. Ltd. An investigation showed that it has not been long since the company was created in the name of Bhujel who is said to be unaware of the business of his company. He had agreed to set up the company in his name just receiving a few thousand rupees.
A senior police officer who was involved in the investigation of the 33.5-kg gold smuggling case of Gore informed that the smugglers were using new methods of smuggling. According to him, earlier, the gold was smuggled using passengers, but, nowadays, the cargo office was being misused.
Gore’s racket was found to have smuggled around four tonnes of gold in four years from the TIA.
Recently, it was also found that nine kilograms of gold, which was smuggled while kept inside vapes (electric cigarettes), was sold illegally by some customs officials.
Nepal Police informed that smuggled gold worth Rs. 974,739,990 was seized in the fiscal year 2021/22. The seized amount does not contain the amount of gold confiscated by the Customs Office.
According to the DRI, there was a chance of backstabbing at a time when at least 100 kilograms of gold had passed through Customs without any obstruction. Customs-related act provisions that the Customs is solely responsible for surveilling goods entering the country from abroad.
Nepal Police only check passengers and goods before they leave the country. Customs checks the ones that arrive from abroad.
This case shows that smugglers pass anything from the TIA by paying some amounts to the corrupt employees and others stationed at the TIA. It is also believed that smuggling of gold in huge quantities was not possible without political protection.
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