Gold smuggling: CIB casting its net wider

The ongoing police investigation into recent gold smuggling cases has begun digging a bit deeper.

On Tuesday, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police questioned Dipesh Pun, the son of former Vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun, after his constant contact with the gang suspected of involvement in smuggling gold by concealing the yellow metal in brake shoes of bikes and scooters came to light. 

The illegal gold dispatched via a Cathay Pacific flight originating in Hong Kong had passed through a high-security Tribhuvan International Airport, only to be confiscated at Sinamangal on July 19. 

Pun produced himself at the CIB where a team quizzed him for about four hours. CIB sources informed that Pun denied his involvement in gold smuggling. 

The investigation has revealed that the former vice-president’s family had contacts with Dawa Tshering, a Belgian citizen of Chinese origin linked to gold smuggling. 

Dipesh Pun therefore has come under the scanner and reports suggest that he has a business partnership with Dawa Tshering.

Tsering is married to Amala Roka Magar of Rolpa district and this is how the Pun family, also from Rolpa, came into contact with him. 

The CIB is investigating around 100 different people in connection with the case, including 26 people—six of them foreigners—who are already in police custody.

As part of the probe, it has sent Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Acharya to Hong Kong for investigating possible local connections involved in gold smuggling.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has also started bringing employees in connection with the gold smuggling case under the purview of its investigation by collecting their property details, sources at the CIAA said. 

After it came to light that the then director-general at the Ministry of Finance Jhalakram Adhikari had conversed with those arrested in connection with the case, other employees have also come 

under probe. 

Recently, the CIB has arrested Rahul Mahara, son of former speaker of the House of Representative Krishna Bahadur Mahara, as part of the investigation into the smuggling of nine kg of gold concealed in electronic cigarettes popularly known as vapes.

On 25 Dec, 2022, customs officials at the TIA had confiscated around 730 e-cigarettes dispatched to Nepal through a Fly Dubai flight originating in Hong Kong.

The CIB investigation revealed that the Mahara duo had phone conversations with Chinese racketeers 256 times.

In a public function, Mahara, the former speaker, conceded that he had telephonic conversations with the Chinese national accused in the gold smuggling case but he knew him only as a fruit dealer and had no knowledge of the case.

He later accepted calling airport authorities to ‘inquire about the product’.