The government attorney on Sunday filed cases against 12 “gold smugglers”, charging them with organised crime based on the findings of a two-month long investigation.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has named four persons, accusing them of supplying gold from abroad for long. None of Hari Sharan Khadka, Roshan aka Guptalal Bhusal, Rajan Prasad Panth and Arjun Kharel has been arrested. Police believe that they are based in Dubai.

“We will soon issue a red corner notice against them. Their travel will be restricted,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Nawaraj Silwal, chief of the CIB. 

The CIB on January 5 arrested smugglers along with 33kg gold from the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Twelve people including Senior Superintended of Police Shyam Khatri, the then security in-charge of the TIA, have been arrested so far.

The CIB has arrested Gopal Bahadur Shahi, 43, of Banke; Dil Bandu Thapa, 35, of Kathmandu; Santosh Kafle, 35, of Bara and Hari Karki, 39, of Kavre. Other arrestees are Narayan Yadav, 56, an statistics officer at the TIA; Raj Kumar Dhakal, 30, X-ray technician at the TIA; and Shyam Krishna Shrestha, radio operator at the airport.

The CIB also rounded up some gold traders from the Valley. They include Rojesh Shakya, 47, Sunil Shrestha, 49, Sapan Shrestha, 47, and Manoj Shrestha, 40—owners of the Baibhab Laxmi Gold and Silver Palace, New Road.

DIG Silwal said the airport officials had been getting kickbacks between Rs50,000 and Rs80,000 per kg gold that passed security checks easily.

“We will also write to the Department of Money Laundering Investigation to probe these officials,” said DIG Silwal.

The CIB had suspected organised crime as many of the past cases “did not yield expected results”. DIG Silwal said that at least 45 cases of gold smuggling were handled by the Revenue Investigation Department in the past five years but the culprits were released on bail.

“Many of those released have got back into smuggling again,” said DIG Silwal. In the chat details revealed by the Nepal Police unit, one of the officials was found asking the smugglers if he could stay out of duty on a certain day. The smuggler reportedly replied that he could not because “goods” were coming in and it required his presence for unrecorded transit.