September 1: Nepal Police has sent a team of police officials including experts from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to India to gather further information on the 61 kg gold smuggled into the country from Hong Kong. The team left for India on Thursday.    
On Wednesday, another team led by Senior Superintendent of Police from CIB, Dinesh Acharya, headed towards Hong Kong to investigate the same case.    
The team sent to India will collect information on gold smuggling in coordination with Nepal Police's SSP Uma Prasad Chaturvedi deputed at the Nepali Embassy in India.

Inspector General of Nepal Police Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said that the police are collecting information on smuggling of huge amount of gold by mobilizing police team across the country, and to India and China as well. Earlier, the police had written to INTERPOL in Hong Kong and India, seeking cooperation from them.    

The Department of Revenue Investigation had confiscated 60.716 kg of gold from the gate of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) a few months ago after the smuggled gold had passed customs clearance from the TIA’s Customs Office.

The gold was smuggled from Hong Kong and found hidden in brake-shoes imported for scooters. It was revealed during the investigation that such amount of precious yellow metal was smuggled in cahoots with the employees of the customs office. Following the revelation, some employees have been arrested for further investigation.    
Moreover, the police have arrested several Nepalis as well as Chinese and Indian nationals in this connection. There are six foreign nationals including those from China and India arrested in this case.    
After police investigation found that the gold brought from Hong Kong illegally is taken to India, the Nepal Police deputed security team to Hong Kong to garner further information.    
Twenty five persons have been arrested in connection with the recent gold smuggling case and investigation is underway.    

A team led by Superintendent of Police at CIB, Sanjay Thapa, is investigating the gold smuggling scam. -- RSS