Arrest Of CPN Vice-President Mahara In Gold Smuggling Case Brings CPN Maoist Members On Discussion Table

The CPN (Maoist Centre) held discussions on the arrest of the party’s Vice Chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara in connection to the gold smuggling case at PM’s official residence at Baluwatar yesterday. Decisions could not be taken to ask Mahara’s resignation from party vice-chairman position on moral grounds.

Nepal Police had arrested CPN (Maoist Center) Vice-chairman Krishna Bahadur Mahara from Kapilvastu on Monday morning over his alleged involvement in the smuggling of nine kilograms of gold disguised as e-cigarettes in December 2022. He was flown to Kathmandu later in the day to be keep Mahara in custody for four days. In Kathmandu, citing his illness court directed the investigating agency to ensure healthcare during custody and his treatment is underway in Norvic Hospital in Kathmandu.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has begun investigation against Mahara on the charge of organized crime. The CIB has received the commission’s report from the Nepal Police Headquarters.

Mahara and his son Rahul came under investigation after police found that they were in contact with those involved in bringing nine kilograms of gold disguised as e-cigarettes in December 2022.

In its investigation report on the 9 kg gold smuggling case submitted to the District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, the CIB of Nepal Police had included a link chart which also showed that Mahara was in contact with Daojin Wang, the alleged mastermind behind the gold smuggling.

The customs office at the Tribhuvan International Airport had confiscated 730 e-cigarettes from a Chinese national named Li Hansong who arrived on a Fly Dubai flight on December 25, 2022.

When Li claimed that the e-cigarettes were brought for business purpose, Chief Customs Officer Mukti Prasad Shrestha had ordered confiscation of the e-cigarettes giving one to the Chinese national for the latter’s use pointing that goods brought for commercial purpose cannot be cleared from the passengers’ section.

The Chinese national, who was allowed to leave after confiscation of the e-cigarettes, left Nepal after staying here for a few days.

The Mahara father-son duo then contacted the chief customs officer and put pressure on him to release the e-cigarettes.

The authorities found out that the e-cigarettes were actually gold only after investigations when a staffer at the customs office realized that the e-cigarettes had been changed from the store.

By: Sweta Singh, Kathmandu