The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed a graft case against 29 individuals and a company, including former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, in a special court on Thursday in connection with the gold smuggling case hidden inside an electronic cigarette (vape) and its subsequent disappearance.
The CIAA has confirmed that both employees and political leaders colluded in the smuggling operation at the Tribhuvan International Airport Customs Office.
The CIAA has made a total of 28 people, including 10 customs officials and 19 others, including former Speaker Mahara, as defendants. A fine of Rs 77,868,095.19 paisa has been imposed on each of the accused.
The CIAA’s investigation has concluded that former Speaker Mahara exerted undue influence over customs officials in collusion with gold smugglers. The charge sheet states, "It has been confirmed that former Speaker of the House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara and his son Rahul Mahara, through him, in collusion with the defendants, including Chinese citizens, made unnatural moves and schemes, influenced the Chief Customs Administrator of the Customs Department, Arun Pokharel, and other public servant defendants, and repeatedly met and contacted them by phone with malicious intent to illegally take gold and other items from the customs office."
Who is subject to action?
The employees against whom the CIAA has filed a case include the then Chief Customs Administrator Arun Pokharel, Chief Customs Officers Mukti Prasad Shrestha and Ambika Prasad Khanal. Similarly, a case has also been registered against customs officers Ramesh Kumar Khatiwada and Subendra Shrestha, Nayaba Subba Subarnaprabha KC, Bhuwan Raj Ghimire, Umesh Prasad Koirala, Rewanta Khadka, and Madhusudan Pokharel.
The non-public servants include former Speaker Mahara, his son Rahul Mahara, Chinese citizens Li Hang Song, Daojin Wang, Belgian citizen Dawa Tshering, along with Indian and Nepali middlemen and traders.
During the investigation, it was found that the employees assigned to the airport's red channel', even after knowing that there was gold, hidden in it in collusion under the pretext of confiscating it. The authority said, "Although the X-ray machine can clearly distinguish metals including gold and silver based on color during the inspection, it was found that the materials were confiscated without being inspected and exchanged at a convenient time, contrary to the Customs Act."
Evidence destroyed and goods exchanged
It has been revealed that the employees moved the goods to a place where the CCTV footage could not be seen and even returned the passport to protect the main smuggler. The Authority claims that the seized goods were kept in the office of the Chief Customs Officer for a long time and later 'set up' to remove genuine gold and replace it with fake goods.
In this case, it has also been revealed that security guards Nirmal Kumar BK and Naya Subba Madhusudan Pokharel removed gold from the bag and made a chain at a shop in Koteshwar. The Authority has said in its claim, '"It has been confirmed that the illegal assets obtained from corruption-related crimes were deposited in the accounts of various individuals in collusion with the civil servant defendants and non-civil servant defendants and the assets were converted and transferred through financial transactions including land purchase."
The Authority has also demanded additional punishment for former administrator Arun Pokharel for acting as the head of a public institution. With the registration of this case, the issue of involvement of high political leadership in gold smuggling has once again triggered legal debate and ripples in the political spectrum.
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