Police on Wednesday arrested Rahul Mahara, son of senior CPN (Maoist Centre) vice-chair and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara, in connection with gold smuggling.

Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief Kiran Bajracharya confirmed the arrest.

“Rahul has been taken into custody. We are now recording his statement,” Additional Inspector General Bajracharya told the Post.

Later in the day, the Kathmandu District Court remanded him to five days in custody.

On December 25 last year, the airport customs office had seized a consignment of electronic cigarettes, some of which were stolen from the warehouse of the customs office, prompting the CIB investigation. According to police, they later found that the e-cigarettes contained gold concealed in them.

The CIB’s investigation found the Mahara father-son in regular contact with a Chinese national who was allegedly smuggling gold, hiding the precious metal in e-cigarettes consignments. The Maharas have been refuting the allegations.

Government authorities, however, were widely criticised for not investigating the former Speaker and his son for their alleged involvement in the case.

There have been calls to investigate the duo’s alleged role in the gold haul after multiple smuggling cases surfaced in recent months. On July 18, smugglers had got past the customs and police with a huge quantity of gold at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The consignment was later seized by the Department of Revenue Investigation from outside the airport. The seized gold, concealed in motorcycle brake shoes, weighed 60.716kg after it was separated and melted, according to the Nepal Rastra Bank.

The CIB, which has been investigating the case, has so far arrested 18 people in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, major political forces have agreed to form a powerful commission to probe gold smuggling. On August 23, national parties represented in the House of Representatives reached a two-point agreement on forming the commission.

The main opposition, CPN-UML, had obstructed parliamentary proceedings for weeks demanding a high-level probe into the incident. Ruling parties, however, were in favour of solely entrusting the CIB with the investigation. Later, they agreed to form the commission on September 22 after the CIB completed its investigation.

Only commercial banks are allowed to import gold formally on a large scale. Individuals returning from abroad can bring with them up to 50 gram gold in the form of jewellery without paying any duty. Anyone carrying more jewellery—up to 200 grams—needs to pay tax for the gold that exceeds 50 grams, according to the department. But gold jewellery weighing more than 200 grams is confiscated, according to the customs department.