The Kathmandu District Attorney Office on Wednesday filed a case against four individuals, including Rahul Mahara, son of former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, on charge of organised crime.

According to chief of the district attorney office Achyut Mani Neupane, along with Rahul, Lokendra Bahadur Paudel, driver of the alleged Chinese smuggler Daojin Wang, who is also allegedly a key architect in another case of 60 kg gold smuggling, and Dawa Tsering, who is currently in custody in connection with the same case, and Nima Gurung have been named defendants in the case.

The case was registered as per Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau’s (CIB) recommendation to prosecute the accused involved in the smuggling of nine kilograms of gold concealed in e-cigarettes (vapes) in December last year.

On December 25 last year, the airport customs office seized electronic cigarettes, parts of which were stolen from the warehouse of the customs office, prompting a CIB investigation. Police said they later found that the gold had been concealed inside those cigarettes.

During their investigation, the police unearthed close contact between the Mahara duo and a Chinese national who was smuggling gold concealed inside electronic cigarettes.

Previously, police had inquired with senior Mahara, who is also a vice-chair of the ruling party CPN (Maoist Centre), about the smuggling of gold after it was found that he had contacts with Chinese smugglers. Like in the case of former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, senior Mahara was not interrogated in the presence of the government attorney.

A senior police officer said that the former Speaker was just inquired as it was not found necessary to interrogate him in the presence of the government attorney. And no case has been filed against him.