Fake gold business on the rise in Kathmandu Valley

Published On: December 20, 2018 09:47 AM NPT By: Republica  | @RepublicaNepal


KATHMANDU, Dec 20: Incidents of police confiscating counterfeit gold in the Kathmandu valley are rising in the recent days. On Monday, police arrested a person for possessing one kilogram of counterfeit gold at his residence in Sukedhara.

The incident comes in the wake of the arrest of two persons for possessing fake gold from Bauddha a week ago. The Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu had arrested Lal Bahadur Tamang, 22, of Balephi Rural Municipality and Raj Bahadur Tamang, 23, of Melamchi Municipality while they were out to sell the lookalike gold for Rs 6.6 million on December 11. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hobindra Bogati, who led the arrest, claimed that fake gold businesses seem to have risen in the Valley.

“The groups that sell fake gold have increased in the recent days,” he said, adding, “We are trying to be proactive in controlling the fake gold rackets.”

However, he also confessed that police are having a hard time in keeping these rackets under control. “We request everyone to be careful while buying gold since the business of counterfeit gold is growing,” DSP Bogati said.

DSP Bogati also informed Republica that police are not being able to keep these activities under control since the arrestee get out on bail easily. 

“We arrest the people and the very next day they are released on bail,” he said. He added that the arrestees in the Bauddha incident had also been arrested before on the same charge.

He further disclosed that the police have suspected that all such fake gold are of foreign origin. 

“There are various marks on the fake gold bars and they look extremely similar to real gold,” he said, “It is difficult to produce such material in Nepal.”

Police claimed that the increase in cases of counterfeit gold is the result of people’s attitude toward the crime. “While the buyers are attracted by the chance of purchasing gold at low price, the sellers tend to take the risk because they can make huge profit,” DSP Bogati said. In the gold transaction busted in Thankot two weeks ago, the gold bar was being sold at Rs 3.6 million which is about 20 percent less than the market value of Rs 4.6 million.


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