During regular checking, police recovered the foreign currency hidden in a false-bottom cleverly carved on the curved metallic sheet above the back wheels of a sports utility vehicle (Ra 1 Cha 320). [break]
The door mat was nailed over the curved surface to avoid any suspicion and the dollars in five bundles were recovered from one side and four from the other.
The driver, who was the only person in the vehicle which regularly makes Tatopani-Kathmandu trips, however has not been arrested with police claiming that he managed to escape.
Inspector at the Larcha police office Bhakta Bahadur Bista claimed the illegal currency was recovered on the basis of a tip-off but he couldn´t convincingly explain how the driver managed to escape during a regular checking. “We had information that the vehicle was being regularly used for illegal activities,” Bista said this much.
The vehicle was stopped at the check post at around eight in the morning but the cash was recovered only two hours later. Police claimed the driver fled during the intervening period. Bista said the driver was standing by the side of the vehicle as the police were searching it and eventually slipped away, but other police sources said he escaped on a motorcycle after the police opened the rear door.
“We concluded that there were illegal items in the vehicle after the driver didn´t return even in two hours,” Bista added. Police said the vehicle may have been used in smuggling foreign currency even in the past as it made a round trip to Kathmandu carrying passengers every day.
Chief of the District Police Office, Sindhupalchowk DSP Basanta Kumar Lama said the cash would be handed over to the Department of Revenue Investigations (DRI) and investigation would be initiated into the vehicle owner and the driver.
American dollars have been illegally smuggled to China through Tatopani along with red sandalwood, pangolin scales and parts of other wild animals with the police recovering dollars twice in the past. Involvement of Chinese citizens was established in those cases with Nepalis just transporting the currency.
Police had recovered US $ 270,362 from a private car (Ba 2 Cha 6112) on August 18, 2010 and arrested five persons including two Chinese. They had also seized US $ 29,600 from a Nepali businessman Dam Sarki of Dolakha on June 11, 2010.
Sarki had claimed that the money belonged to 12 Chinese businessmen and warned that Nepali businessmen would be robbed in Khasa in revenge if the money was not returned.
Police had also recovered US $ 300,000 being prepared to be smuggled to China from a Chinese businessman in Swayambhu, Kathmandu on July 15, 2009.
Then chief of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner´s Officer Kalyan Kumar Timlasina was also implicated in the case and 16 Chinese businessmen had stopped 90 containers of Nepali businessmen in Khasa in protest.
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