KATHMANDU: It has been revealed that Proprietor of Being Human clothing store in Nepal Santosh Chandra Bakhrel is also involved in drug-related offenses.
His involvement in drug-related cases came to the fore as New Baneshwor-based Kathmandu Metropolitan Crime Division of Nepal Police arrested four persons, including Bakhrel, for selling customs-evaded liquor in Kathmandu Valley on Sunday.
After he was arrested, it became known that he had been a fugitive defendant in a drug case.
Bakhrel recently took over Being Human clothing store in Nepal from the previous owner Raju Thapa. Being Human is a clothing brand started by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.
According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Krishna Prasad Koirala, Bakhrel is linked to two drug-related offenses. The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) had made him a defendant last year when about 1.5 million tablets of controlled drug ‘tramadol’ were seized, the SP added.
“He was also found involved in 15 days old case in which Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized a cache of tramadol.”
NCB’s SP Jeevan Shrestha said the bureau’s tramadol-related ‘Operation Trauma’ was underway before the crime division launched its operation on illegally procured liquor. “In that operation, we held the driver of the vehicle ferrying drugs. He was Bakhrel’s nephew. We got Bakhrel’s name from his nephew and were searching for him,” he added. “Meanwhile, we got information that the crime divison arrested him.”
Bakhrel has been handed over to the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) in Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur, for further investigation.
The NCB will conduct further investigations into Bakhrel after DRI’s investigation concludes.
Meanwhile, NCB apprehended five persons involved in peddling tramadol from different places in Kathmandu on Monday. The bureau seized 20,815 tablets of the controlled drug from them.
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