Valley
Gold haul accused kills self in police custody
A man accused of smuggling 33.5 kgs of gold along with others committed suicide on Friday while he was in police custody, authorities said.A man accused of smuggling 33.5 kgs of gold along with others committed suicide on Friday while he was in police custody, authorities said.
The accused suicide gives a mysterious twist to the smuggling case that allegedly has complicity of police officers considering the huge value of the contraband.
Premlal Chaudhary, a resident of Rajapur Municipality-7, Bardiya, committed suicide at the Anamnagar based custody of Metropolitan Police Circle, police said. Chaudhary was a loader of Nepal Airlines Corporation.
Police claimed he committed suicide in the bathroom before 5 am on Friday. This is the third death in the gold smuggling case.
On January 23, the 33.5 kgs gold smuggled from the United Arab Emirates via Tribhuvan International Airport went missing before it reached the intended receiver. During the search for the missing smuggled gold, its carrier ‘mule’ Sanam Shakya was found murdered after he was tortured. Sanu Ban, a staffer at TIA, had crushed himself in front of a tanker on the first week of February.
Suspecting the involvement of police officials, Nepal Police Headquarters has named a high-level investigation team to investigate the strange gold smuggling case.
The police headquarters took this decision stating further investigation was necessary to ascertain the role of police in the murder of smuggler Shakya.
Police had recovered Shakya’s body from a vehicle during security check in Lahan, Siraha district on March 3. Shakya was missing for four days before police found him dead.
Senior officers have called SSP Dibesh Lohani, DSP Prajit KC and SI Balkrishna Sanjel of Metropolitan Crime Division to the headquarters for inquiry.
The Home Ministry too has formed a high-level probe committee led by joint secretary Ishwor Poudel.