KATHMANDU, March 18: The police arrested a truck driver at Jhor in Tokha Municipality on the northern outskirts of Kathmandu on Monday night, on the charge of transporting a large sum of foreign currency.
After receiving a tip off, a team from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office apprehended 43-year-old Kushang Lama, originally from Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk, and seized a truck (Na 7 Kha 1652) along with a hidden stash of foreign currency. Lama had been residing in a rented house in Gokarna, Kathmandu, prior to his arrest.
His mother owns the truck. Before placing the foreign currency inside the truck, he kept the vehicle in a garage for 20 days to paint it and to give it a new look.
The police found 60 bundles of notes concealed beneath the driver's seat and inside a false bottom built in the truck's cabin. The seized foreign currency includes euros and US dollars.
The euros, in denominations of 50, 100, 200, and 500, amounted to 1.38 million euros. The US dollars, in denominations of 50 and 100, totaled USD 320,850. At the current exchange rate, the total value of the seized currency is Rs 250.16 million.
Lama's statement and suspected links to gold smuggling
Investigation reports point to strong nexus between gold and cu...
Lama told the police that a Chinese national gave him the money to transport to Kerung, China. However, police sources indicated that Lama planned to leave the truck at Rasuwagadhi and have someone else with a visa cross the border and take the truck to Kerung.
While Lama denies knowledge about the origins of the foreign currency, police suspect that he may have illegally exchanged the money through private currency exchanges. Investigators are also focused on identifying the money's owner and verifying if the funds are related to gold smuggling operations due to Lama’s past conviction in smuggling gold.
A police source said, "It is not yet clear how he accumulated such a large amount of foreign currency. It seems unlikely that he collected this amount through banks. He may have exchanged the money illegally through private currency exchange entities. The investigation is ongoing."
Driver Lama stated that someone loaded the money into his truck, which was parked in the Samakhusi area of Kathmandu.
However, the police suspect that not only Lama but others may also be involved in this incident. The police received information late Monday night about a large sum of money being transported in the truck.
After receiving the information, DSP Anil Ghimire led a team to conduct the search.
Police sources said that they started searching for the money after bringing the truck to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office in Teku.
The police's preliminary investigation found that the seized US dollars and euros were meant for delivery to Kerung, China, in exchange for gold.
This is not the first time Lama was arrested by the police. In 2016, police had seized seven gold bars each weighing one kilogram hidden inside the air filter box in the front of a vehicle driven by Lama. Police officers claim that Lama has once again started transporting dollars and gold by creating a false bottom in the vehicle.
Police had earlier arrested Lama with 7 kilograms of gold from Kalanki on December 28, 2016 while illegally transporting gold in a Hilux jeep with registration number BA 8 Cha 7420, which was traveling from Rasuwagadhi via Galchi to Kathmandu. He was released in 2021 after serving a sentence of five years in prison.
Currently, police sources claim that he attempted to transport the foreign currency to Kerung for gold smuggling. However, it remains unclear who owns the money and for whom he was smuggling the gold. The identity of the Chinese citizen, who Lama claims to have provided the money, is not known yet.
Lama claims that the Chinese national provided him with a box containing the cash and instructed him to transport it to Kerung but the details were not enough to identify the foreigner.
The police suspect the involvement of a larger group and investigations are underway with a focus on finding the owner of the foreign currency.
The police now plan to hand over Lama and the truck, along with the seized foreign currency, to the Revenue Investigation Department in Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur for further investigation under the Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act, 2019. The police will also record the serial numbers of the seized currencies as part of their investigation before depositing the money into the government treasury.
