The actual weight of the gold that was seized last month is likely to be much less than the gross weight, which included motorcycle brake shoes and electric shavers, a senior official of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said on Monday.

On July 18, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) seized the smuggled gold at Sinamangal, Kathmandu right after it cleared customs at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) undetected. The gold, packed in eight sealed cartons, was then sent to the Mint Division of the central bank for weighing. The gross weight of the consignment seized was determined to be 155kg.

Now, with the DRI handing over the task of investigating the case to the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police, the police had requested the NRB to melt the seized gold to find out its actual weight.

“The gold, weighed after removing the brake shoes, came to be 60.789kg,” said Thaneshwar Acharya, director at the Mint Division of the central bank. “We will start melting it on Tuesday to determine its quality and actual weight.”

Acharya said it might take a week to complete the process and find out the gold’s actual weight. Earlier, the DRI had stopped short of asking the NRB to melt the gold. After the CIB took up the task of investigation, the police unit had requested the central bank to melt the gold.

Earlier, the consignment containing the gold was wax-sealed and sent to the safekeeping of the Mint Division. The smugglers had stashed the gold in other metal items to pass them off as regular merchandise.

The CIB chief, Additional Inspector General of Police Kiran Bajracharya, said the brake shoes were removed and the weight of seized gold was taken on Monday, as a part of the investigation. “Representatives from the NRB, the CIB and the DRI were present during the process,” she added.

In early August, the CIB had taken over the task of investigating the matter. Earlier, the DRI had arrested 18 people on the charge of being involved in smuggling the gold. It had also raided a factory at Tokha in Kathmandu, a suspected site used by smugglers for melting gold.

The CIB also raided the warehouse of Ready Trade, a private firm, at Sorhakhutte in Kathmandu and seized 66 boxes of motorcycle brake shoes. Many of the brake shoes were found to be lighter than those seized at Sinamangal, raising suspicions that gold from the motorcycle component had already been extracted.

The DRI also raided the house of Rakesh Kumar Adukia, one of the prime suspects in the smuggling case, as part of efforts to find the actual owners of the seized gold. Later, on August 11, the immigration office at the TIA took Rohan Adukiya, the son of Rakesh Adukiya, in custody in connection with the gold smuggling case.

CIB chief Bajracharya, however, said that the bureau has not taken him in custody for lack of evidence.

The latest seizure suggests that the Tribhuvan International Airport continues to be a gateway for large-scale smuggling of gold. In 2017, authorities had busted a smuggling case involving 33 kg of gold, but the gold went missing.

Since the fiscal year 2018-2019, the NRB has purchased 375.6 kg of gold seized by the government authorities including the police, according to Acharya.