Nepal house session adjourned as Opposition plans protest over gold smuggling case

KATHMANDU: The meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) scheduled for Monday at 1 pm (local time) was adjourned as the main opposition CPN-UML planned to protest over the one quintal gold smuggling case. The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) remained firm in their demand for the formation of a high-level committee to investigate the case.

House Speaker Devraj Ghimire issued a notice announcing the adjournment of the meeting. “The next meeting has been rescheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1 pm,” Shekhar Adhikari, press advisor to the house speaker confirmed to ANI over a phone call.

The ongoing standoff has arisen due to CPN-UML’s persistent call for the establishment of a high-level investigation committee to probe the smuggling of gold. Amidst the tension, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' and CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli held a discussion at Baluwatar on Monday morning in an effort to break the impasse in Parliament.

Nepal’s Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) on July 19 seized about 100 kilograms of gold hidden inside the “brake shoe”- a spare part of a motorcycle and scooter, from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Kathmandu. The DRI got the hold of gold after it passed through the customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

When the gold was brought to Nepal from Hong Kong, it was mentioned as ‘lead without battery’ in the manifest and ‘brake shoe’ in other documents. The investigating authority has asked Hong Kong Customs about the security lapses that occurred on their side. While the authorities await the reply from Hong Kong Customs from where it was couriered to Nepal, the DRI also has suspected that earlier packages that landed in Nepal were imported by Ready Trade Pvt. Ltd also contained gold.

As per the record from the Customs Department of Nepal, the company previously also imported a similar consignment multiple times before it was seized on July 19, 2023. As per the data, consignments weighing at least 1,997 kilograms were imported from Hong Kong on different dates prior to July 19. During a raid on July 26 at the Ready Trade’s warehouse in the capital Kathmandu, the DRI seized 66 boxes of the same items. Upon examination the officials didn’t find the gold in any of the “brake shoes” but they suspect tampering of the boxes.

The investigating body- the Department of Revenue Investigation till July 30 has arrested 18 people connected to the gold smuggling but the beneficiary owner of the gold still remains at large. DRI has arrested the owner of Ready Trade named as Dilip Bhujel (21) who is reported to be just a daily wage worker hailing from an impoverished region of Dolakha.

The DRI on July 19 managed to confiscate the gold concealed in motorcycle/scooter brake shoes from the gate of Customs of Tribhuvan International Airport as it was being taken out in a taxi. The gross weight of the smuggled gold was ascertained to be 155 kilograms, which also included electric shavers, according to officials at the mint division of the Nepal Rastra Bank, which has been entrusted with examining the metal.

The DRI is yet to ask the central bank to melt the mix to determine the exact weight of the gold component. The DRI also is making a formal request to the government to live-telecast the gold melting procedure through a state television channel in the coming days.