National
Dhanusha turning into a transit for gold smuggling
A special police team nabbed Bishnu Gautam, 38, of Panchkhal, Kavre, Rajendra Khatri, 34, Rabin Khatri, 24, of Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur, and Deepak Kumar Shah, 38, of Janakpur with one kg gold from Ramananda Chok of Janakpur in Dhanusha district on August 30.A special police team nabbed Bishnu Gautam, 38, of Panchkhal, Kavre, Rajendra Khatri, 34, Rabin Khatri, 24, of Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur, and Deepak Kumar Shah, 38, of Janakpur with one kg gold from Ramananda Chok of Janakpur in Dhanusha district on August 30.
This is not the first incident that police arrested gold smugglers from the district.
Sachin Kadam, 26, of Maharastr, India, was also apprehended with one kg gold from Ranananda Chok on May 15, 2014.
Similarly, Kham Bir Raulya, 21, of Melbisauni, Bajhang district was detained with 10 kg gold from Portaha road along the East-West Highway on July 25 the same year.
A joint police team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division and District Police Office, Dhanusha, had raided Shiva Chok-based Balaram Prasad and Brothers Jewellery Shop on April 9, 2014. The team confiscated six kg gold and 390 kg silver from the shop.
Proprietor of the shop Balaram Gupta, along with the seized ornaments, was handed over to the Customs Office in Pathalaiya for further investigation.
Later, Gupta was released after he posted Rs 27.8 million bail amount, said Gyanendra Dhakal, Chief at the Customs Office, Pathalaiya.
Though many gold smugglers were arrested time and again in the past, they manage to come out of custody after posting the bail.
These incidents indicate that smugglings of the precious yellow metal have been going on in an organised way.
“Gold smugglers are using the route of Janakpur to smuggle the gold to India brought from China,” said a policeman deployed to arrest gold smugglers, adding, “The gold smugglers use two to three carriers to smuggle the gold from Kathmandu.”
Bishnu Gautam,who was arrested with the gold from Janakpur on Wednesday, had managed to smuggle the gold twice in the past and was apprehended while ferrying the gold to India for the third time.