KATHMANDU: The story of gold smuggling in Nepal end up in a mystery. There have been several instances of gold smuggling in the country that have seen the involvement of several big-shots. Gold trafficking in Nepal has taken senior officers to the constables of Nepal Police behind the bars.
Several renowned businesspersons, politicians and the elites in Nepal are often involved in the cases of gold smuggling.
Gold smuggling, be it in the form of gold waist belt, gold tablets, plates, or ornaments, has often warmed the heated discussion of the parliament.
Yet, the chain of gold smuggling seems very long and far from coming to an end. The recent police operation of July 28 that managed to seize 14 kg gold-coated silver and half kg gold has fallen into the circle of controversy.
After the trafficking allegations turned towards the police, a team under the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) is investigating the matter.
“After finding the police role in the gold scams somehow dubious, a team of experts under SSP’s control has been investigating the matter. There have been some lapses on police part as well,” DIG Bishwa Raj Pokharel, the spokesperson of Nepal Police said.
Police helped the smugglers flee
About the gold scam of July 28, the role of the police is found dubious. According to one of the members of the probe committee, there is evidence to establish the police involvement in the flee of the smugglers on July 28 gold scam.
“Police constables Bahadur Singh Kadayat and Prashanna Shrestha both deployed at the Metropolitan Police Circle Durbarmarg, are found involved in fleeing the smugglers rather than arresting them,” the member of the probe committee formed under SSP revealed.
According to him, Kadayat and Shrestha had chased Ba 6 Cha 5519 Scorpio from Kamaladi to Sundhara, seized the gold and let the smugglers in the Scorpio flee from there.
“It’s obvious that the police have taken the goods and helped the smugglers flee,” another member of the probe team said, “ one kg gold kept secretly with the help of the police has also been discovered recently. This makes the police role dubious in the issue.”
Former security officials claim that smugglers have abused the police force to execute their crooked intent.
“It seems that the smugglers abused their connection with the police after the conflict in the group,” former DIG Hemanta Malla who had been in the command of various units investigating such instances for a considerable time of his tenure said, adding, “They have used or rather abused the police to revenge against each other.”
The case is not confined to gold and silver alone. The nexus seems to have a connection in counterfeit money and arms smuggling as well.
“This group is not confined to gold and silver smuggling, it has its nexus spread to other crimes like fake currency and arms smuggling,” former DIG Malla told Khabarhub.
“As there can be other groups above this, the police investigation should be directed towards that as well,” he added.
The arrested policemen are being investigated for their involvement in this ‘organized crime’.
SSP Shyam Gwayali, the Chief of Metropolitan Police Circle Kathmandu, the arrested policemen duo are being investigated for involvement in organized crime of gold smuggling.
They are alleged of helping the abettors flee.
Dewan Patel, Vijaya Patel, Nilesh Patel, Kaushal Patel, Umesh Shreshtha, Manish Mallik and Sandip Gurung have already been arrested in this connection.
DSP Ranjan Dahal has been transferred from Metropolitan Police Circle to Police Training Academy after the scam.
Main alleged absconding
The Ba 6 Cha 5519 Scorpio that fled from Sundhara has been seized from Nakhipot, Lalitpur two days after the smuggling incident. Iltaf Hussein the alleged owner of the Scorpio is absconding.
The primary investigation of the probe committee has hinted that Iltaf Hussein is the main alleged in this incident. Many others involved in the incident have already been arrested.
The main alleged Iltaf had passed his time as a jailbird in counterfeit of Indian currency. He is also a member of counterfeit currency scams in which Unis Ansari was regarded as the key player.
Lalitpur District Court, in its June 9, 2010 verdict, had declared Ansari guilty in Indian Currency counterfeiting and ordered fine and imprisonment for him.
The police conclude that he is actively involved in gold smuggling and many other criminal activities. He is one of the ‘most wanted’ criminals in the Indian Police list.
Indian news channels often show that the fake gold transactions are getting very common in Rajasthan India. The police officials conjecture that the fake gold could also be heading towards the Indian market.
Apartments rented for smuggling
According to one of the members of the probe committee, Iltaf Hussein Ansari’s gang has rented an apartment at Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu for more than 6 months.
“The group is found to have rented Apartment-2 B paying 100 thousand rupees per month,” the source said, adidng, “Indian gold businessmen Nilesh Sakhiya, and Sanjaya have been paying 60% and 40% of the rent.”
A group of Indian thugs had come to Nepal 12 days prior to the gold scam of July 28.
Refusal to pay for the gild wage led to the exposure of the scam
The Indian thugs bought 14 kg silver at 5.6 rupees from Dewan Patel a gold-silver entrepreneur at New Road Kathmandu. Then they gilded the silver with gold. Dewan, an Indian national gilded it as per the order.
According to one of the members of the gold scam probe committee, the thugs refused to pay the wage of gilding to Dewan.
After not getting the wages, Dewan and his brother Kaishal Patel made plans to loot the gold involving police in the plot.
They shared their plans to police constable Kadayat.
“Convinced by Patel’s plan constable Kadayat talked to his friend constable Prashanna Shrestha,” the source reported, “As per their plan they informed DSP Ranjan Dahal about the fake gold, Dahal executed the operation as per the information clues, but the operation turned unsuccessful.”
Although the thugs managed to skip DSP Dahal’s operation, they could not throw dust in the eyes of Prashanna and Bahadur Singh. Finally, the group handed over the bags to the constable duos and took to their heels from Sundhara.
The source claimed that the incident came to the surface due to the conflict among the Indian gang and added that the details will be made public soon.