In the ongoing investigation into the 14 kg gold smuggling case, the Tribhuvan International Airport has failed to provide CCTV footage to investigators from over three weeks before the alleged smuggling incident, the probe committee has revealed.

As per the CCTV/Camera Installation and Operation Procedure 2015 introduced by the home ministry, CCTV footage should be kept safe for at least three months.

On December 7, Chandra Ghale of Barpak, Gorkha, who arrived in Kathmandu by a flydubai flight, was arrested with 14 kilograms of gold at the airport. He had concealed the gold bars in a waistcoat-like vest that he had worn.

“We had sought the CCTV footage from the three months before the seizing of the 14 kg smuggled gold in early December,” said Maniram Poudel, head of the investigation committee which submitted its report to TIA customs chief Tok Raj Pandey on Sunday. “We were given the CCTV footage only from the past 21 days as earlier recordings were supposedly automatically erased.”

Last year, former finance minister Janardan Sharma was accused of permitting two unauthorised persons inside the Ministry of Finance, which is within the highly secure Singha Durbar compound, to tweak tax rates on the eve of budget presentation for the fiscal year 2022-23.

When a parliamentary committee formed to probe the issue sought in July the CCTV footage of the day (May 28, 2022) of the alleged incident, the finance ministry responded by saying that the footage of May 28 had been erased as the system could store only 13 days of recording. It was seen as Sharma’s attempt to destroy the evidence.

The majority members of the 11-member parliamentary probe committee gave Sharma a clean chit arguing that the entry of an unauthorised person into the finance ministry could not be established without visual evidence.

Four members of the committee wrote a note of dissent arguing there was no extensive investigation, including of phone call details of suspected unauthorised persons, in the absence of CCTV footage. Subsequently, Sharma, who had resigned his post, was reinstated as finance minister.

Even after the highly controversial episode, government agencies appear to be ignoring the rules on CCTV installation.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) was supposed to maintain the CCTV footage as per the rules introduced in 2015, but it didn’t have a system for keeping footage for such a long period.

“Until November 1, we had a system of retaining up to a month’s footage,” said Subhas Jha, the CAAN spokesman for the Tribhuvan International Airport. “That’s why we could not provide CCTV footage of longer periods.”

He, however, said the TIA installed a system in early-November that can store the CCTV footage for three months.

“In the past, we did not feel the need to keep CCTV footage safe for a long period. It also took time to procure and install a system to preserve footage for three months,” Jha said.

Even though the probe committee failed to get CCTV footage of more than three weeks prior to the seizure of smuggled gold, even the available footage could prove crucial in establishing that the same gang was involved in smuggling more gold.

Chandra Ghale, who was arrested with 14kg gold on December 7, argued during his interrogation that he was only a carrier and was told to leave the precious metal at the airport’s restroom-based dustbin. From there, the sanitation staff would supposedly take the haul to a predetermined destination.

Based on his statement, Min Bahadur Ghale, who allegedly recruited Chandra to transport the gold, was also arrested. After studying the CCTV footage, Krishna Kumar Shrestha, another carrier of gold associated with the same group, was also arrested.

“Shrestha told us that he had himself brought gold seven times, 14 kg at a time,” said Poudel. Based on the statement of those arrested, the probe committee concluded that this gang had smuggled 138kg of gold in 2022 and 2023, according to Poudel.

The gang used to smuggle gold in collusion with some staff of CAAN at the TIA including Ramesh Deula and Lekh Bahadur Tamang, according to the probe committee. The committee, however, failed to conclude the ultimate destination of smuggled gold citing lack of time.

According to Poudel, Min Bahadur Ghale told the probe committee that they used to give smuggled gold to the people assigned by Ankit Agrawal, a Dubai-based Indian national. “But he [Ghale] didn’t confirm whether the gold was destined for India,” he said.

In recent years, there have been several other incidents of gold smuggling through the TIA indicating that the country’s international airport has become a transit hub for the smuggling of yellow metal.

In July, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) had seized 60kg of smuggled gold from Sinamangal, Kathmandu soon after it passed customs at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) undetected.

The case was later handed over to the Central Investigation Bureau of Police. The investigation revealed transnational and political links, with a number of Chinese nationals running gold smuggling rackets with an apparent backing of Nepal’s leading political figures.

Police found that Daojin Wang, a Chinese national, who has been charge-sheeted in a separate 9kg gold smuggling case, had multiple contacts with former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the CPN (Maoist Centre) vice-chair. “But no Chinese link has thus far been established in the 14-kg gold smuggling case,” said TIA customs chief Pandey.

Investigation into smuggling of 60kg gold revealed that the customs office there does not have an X-ray machine that can detect gold hidden in other metals. The smuggling of 14kg gold exposed that the TIA was not keeping footage of people’s movement for more than a month even though the airport is one of the most sensitive places.

“Now, we will have the infrastructure to keep up to three months’ CCTV footage,” said Jha.