Tipped off by a special source, a squad of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku, arrested three Indian citizens -- two brothers operating a jewelry shop in Kathmandu and one involved in supplying gold to various shops as per the demand. The arrested have been identified as Bikram Mittal, 34, and his brother Bibek Mittal, 32, originally from Darjeeling of West Bengal in India. Both of them were operating Bhagya Laxmi Jewelers in Kathmandu since the last few years. The other arrested is Bhagirath Chaudhary, 50, of Rajesthan in India.A police squad initially arrested Chaudhary, one of the suppliers of gold, and on the basis of information provided by him, the police raided the shop where he supplied gold within a short time. During the raid, police seized 8.5 kg of gold possessed illegally by the operators.
Chaudhary, who confessed to the police that he was involved in the illegal job for more than three times, said that the gold belonged to a man identified as 'Mama' in China.
"It was an organized crime and we are trying to dig more to identify the major kingpins behind the crime," said the SSP Sarbendra Khanal, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku. However the operators have claimed that they were innocent. Police investigation revealed that the gold was brought in via land route from China.
The police said that gold smuggling was on a steady rise despite repeated crackdown. In the fiscal year 2069/070, the police had seized 83.20 kg of gold, in the FY 070/71 89.9 kg and in the FY 071/072 the haul was over 120 kg of smuggled gold.
The estimated price of the latest seizure is Rs 46.6 million. About 15 percent of the total value of the smuggled gold that has been seized will be provided to the informants as an incentive after the gold is deposited at the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) along with the list of the informants.
Meanwhile, the crime division has also arrested two men on the charge of operating hundi business, an informal money transferring business against the law. The arrested have been identified as Satya Narayan Aagrawal, 57, from Madhubani in Bihar of India and Saroj Parajuli, 18, of Kavre. They have been accused of operating the illegal business and later charged for transferring money.
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