JANAKPURDHAM/ BARA, August 12: Last Wednesday at 8:30PM, a car with Indian registration number BR 01 BN 47 loaded with sacks of clothes that had been smuggled through the Madar customs checkpoint area hit a cyclist on the Siraha-Choharwa road section. The driver left the car on the road and ran away after Dinesh Sada and Yasin Dhami of Siraha Municipality-22 who were riding the bicycle were injured. After reaching the accident site and investigating, a police team from the Bishnupur Police Station recovered three sacks of clothes inside the car. The car with the recovered clothes was handed over to the District Customs Office Madar on Thursday through the District Police Office, Siraha.

The customs office has no record of the entry of the car with smuggled goods. According to the customs office, there is no official record of the car entering Nepal via the Madar crossing point from last Sunday to Wednesday. According to the Border Out Post Madar, as the ground clearance of the car is very low, it is highly unlikely that the car could have entered Nepal from the border area other than the main border point. According to police sources, a person from Bishnupur Rural Municipality was using the car to transport smuggled goods from across the country. Had the accident not happened, the car and the smuggled goods would not have been recovered. The police have assessed the cost of the recovered clothes to be around Rs 76,600 and that of the car at around Rs 1.5 million and submitted both items to the customs office. A customs official said that the car, which is not in a good condition, and the clothes, were overvalued by the police.

The police, who overvalued the seized car and clothes and handed them over to the customs, have not shown any interest in searching for the smugglers and the vehicle owner. Arjun Timalsina, Superintendent of Police, Siraha, said that there was no need for much digging as few items were recovered. DSP Subhash Budhathoki, who is also the police spokesperson for Siraha, said that he did not know where the seized Indian car came from. "We have submitted the goods to the customs," he said.

In the afternoon of July 13, after seeing a police vehicle, the drivers of a motorcycle loaded with sacks full of liquor and going towards Jayanagar in India left the motorcycle near the Kamala Bridge and ran away. A team led by Jayanagar sub-divisional police officer Biplav Kumar seized four motorcycles loaded with 12 sacks of liquor bottles. Police investigation later revealed that the liquor had reached Jayanagar from Nepal through the Dhanusha and Siraha border posts.

On July 26, various brands of liquor stored for smuggling into India were seized at the no man’s land near Manarasiswa Municipality-5 of Mahottari. The police valued the seized liquor at over Rs 1.85 million and handed it over to the Internal Revenue Office in Dhanusha. In the morning of July 12, a pick-up vehicle (Ja 1 Cha 1268), which was going to India through the Janakpur-Tulsiyahi road located in Nagarine Municipality-4 of Dhanusha, was full of liquor cartons. When the police on patrol stopped the vehicle and checked it, 300 cartons of liquor of Dilwale brand were seized. But when the police interrogated the 23-year-old driver Nure Alam Shesh of Mukhiyapatti Musaharnia Rural Municipality-3 of Dhanusha, a different vehicle number (Na 2 Cha 3319) was mentioned in the bill issued in the name of Anushka Traders. Dhanusha police said that when the police interrogated the driver Alam, it was revealed that the liquor loaded in the vehicle was to be taken to India. After that, the police seized the vehicle and liquor along with Alam.

According to Jayanagar police, many people and vehicles smuggling liquor from Nepal to India are under control. Many are still in prison. But instead of stopping, the smuggling of alcohol from Nepal to India has been increasing. India's Bihar State has banned alcohol. Because of this, liquor is being smuggled from Nepal to the bordering Indian villages and towns. The network of people smuggling liquor into India is spreading organically from various points of Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Saptari and Siraha which are connected to the border with India.

There has been an increase in liquor smuggling through dozens of secret routes in the border areas of Siraha, Saptari, Dhanusha and Mahottari. Smugglers have been found to be carrying liquor bottles and cartons on their heads and crossing the border on foot or on motorcycles. Liquor smugglers are more afraid of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indian Police than Nepali security personnel. The residents of the border area say that liquor smugglers collude with the BSF in some border areas. Locals of the area say that from children to youths in the border area carry alcohol across the border as porters.

Smuggling of liquor through the porous border with India has been on the rise. Those who open their mouths about smuggling face the risk of being killed. Those who do so are first tried to be silenced with money. If that doesn’t work, they are silenced by threats. Hanumannagar, Kankalini, Kunauli, Chhinnamasta Barsain checkpoint in Saptari have become fertile for liquor smuggling. An organized network of smugglers operates to load sacks of liquor on boats from Hunmannagar to India via the Koshi River. The police and the armed police force occasionally seize small amounts of smuggled liquor when they fail to strike a deal with the smugglers. However, they haven’t been able to bust the organized network of smugglers. 

The border crossings in Madhesh Province are also considered safe for smuggling goods including clothes from India. With the connivance of the customs officials, smugglers have turned the Birgunj Customs Office, too, a point of entry for trucks carrying smuggled goods from India. On July 5, the police seized a cargo truck (Na 6 Kha 2344) from Birgunj Metropolitan City-6 Loharpatti road section and found various types of clothes and retail goods without a bill of lading. The truck with the goods was valued at Rs 6.83 million and handed over to the Revenue Investigation Office, Pathlaiya, for necessary action.

Lately, smuggling has been flourishing in Parsa. Smuggling is rising through Amarpatti and Bishwa crossings in Parsa. On July 13, a clash between smugglers and BSF took place when the latter tried to stop the smuggled goods being brought through Kukuhiya village on the Velahi border of the Indian city of Raxaul. The BSF personnel stopped the smugglers at the Nepal-India border while the smugglers loaded a pick-up vehicle, five carts and four bicycles with clothes and brought the contraband through the Velahi border crossing. The smugglers attacked the BSF after the latter captured three smugglers, 28 bags of clothes, a cart and a pick-up vehicle (Br 06 G 9719). The BSF had to fire aerial shots to control the situation. Three BSF men were also injured in the clash.

This is proof that smuggled goods such as clothes, motor parts etc enter Nepal from India in large quantities through the Velahi crossing of Raxaul and the Amarpatti and Bishwa crossings of Parsa. When the BSF tries to stop the smuggling in coordination with the security officers around, the smuggled goods are destroyed. Customs revenue coming in from various border crossings and goods including clothes are stored in warehouses in Birgunj and the businessmen deliver them to different cities of the country.

Extortion by plain-clothes cops and informants

The policemen against whom action has been taken on charges of acting contrary to police conduct while working in the districts of Madhesh Province, have been given the responsibility of secretly collecting information on smuggling. The same people have been working as informants for the District Police Office, Siraha, for years. Locals complain that the main job of such policemen and informants is to strike a ‘deal’ with the smugglers and create a favorable environment for the transportation of the smuggled goods to the warehouses. It has been complained that the chiefs of Madhesh Province Police Office, Janakpurdham, and district police offices have assigned the policemen who have been punished for acting against police conduct to collect money from the smugglers.

Assistant Sub Inspector Shyam Shah Sonar, who was sent to Siraha on the charge of extorting money from smugglers while working as a plain-cloth policeman in Parsa district, has now been sent to Parsa again. Although Sonar is officially stationed in Saptari, he has been assigned to the District Police Office Parsa. Businessmen of Birgunj complain that he is involved in extorting money from smugglers and industrialists in the Birgunj area.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG)  of Police, Tek Prasad Rai, who is also the spokesperson for Nepal Police, says that the such informants and plain-clothes policemen who have faced action in the past should not be mobilized as plain-clothes cops in the same areas again. DIG Rai said that the police headquarters will take action if the policemen who have been punished in the past for going against police conduct and have a bad image are deployed in plain clothes along the borders.

 
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