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Gold smuggling investigation risks political interference

After the government handed over the responsibility of investigating the recent gold smuggling case to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, the main opposition party in Parliament, the CPN-UML, has been demanding a high-level investigation committee to probe the scam.

The UML has been obstructing the Parliament meeting for the past few days demanding a parliamentary or a high-level investigation committee on the smuggled gold case. Experts say that there is no need to doubt the competence of the CIB, which is skillful in the investigation of organized and transnational crimes. They claim that the formation of a new committee will hamper the ongoing investigation and will not give the expected results.

Former DIG of Nepal Police Hemanta Malla Thakuri says that there is no need to form another investigation committee as CIB is capable of conducting result-oriented investigation. “The CIB is continuing the investigation in a comprehensive manner. There is a possibility to mislead the investigation when a political committee or other committee is formed. The political motives can hamper the investigation,” he says. According to DIG Malla, who resolved the mysterious Ranibari murder case when he headed the CIB, the investigations conducted from the political and administrative levels in the past were not able to provide any tangible results. 

“The investigations and studies conducted at the administrative levels have not been able to solve the rape and murder case of Nirmala Panta yet. There are many other incidents like this,” says former DIG Malla.

In the past, when KP Sharma Oli was the prime minister, a special investigation team was formed according to Section 11(1) of the Organized Crime Prevention Act, 2070. Even at that time, a report was submitted to the then Prime Minister Oli detailing the smuggling of up to 38 quintals of gold. The provisions of that report have not yet been implemented.

Relief to smugglers due to lack of coordination between the two agencies

The lack of coordination between the two government agencies – the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) and the CIB– in the investigation of the gold seized by the DRI on July 19 seems to have provided relief to the smugglers. 

Coordination between the two agencies is lacking because the CIB was assigned with investigation of organized crime and transborder crime 18 days after the gold was seized by the DRI.

It is also evident from the reluctance of the police to investigate those people blacklisted by the DRI and arrested by the Department of Immigration and sent to the CIB. 

On August 11, the Department of Immigration arrested two Chinese nationals from the TIA in connection with gold smuggling. Those arrested were Lijia Lin and Liu Fuyan. Along with them, the DRI blacklisted seven others, who were arrested and handed over to the DRI by the Department of Immigration. The DRI then forwarded the case for investigation to the CIB. But the CIB refused to charge them, stating that the DRI did not reveal the grounds for blacklisting them.

Similarly, controversial businessman Rakesh Adukia and his son Rohan Adukia were also blacklisted by the DRI. The Department of Immigration had arrested Rohan on August 12 and sent him to the CIB, but the CIB refused to investigate him and released him after signing an agreement to be present whenever required. 

“The gold was recovered by the DRI. But the department is not ready to share the source of information with us. Apart from written documents, nothing has been made available,” said a CIB officer involved in the investigation. “We have started the investigation from scratch. Clues have been received from some of the people who have been arrested but it will take some time to come up with a conclusion. The network of gold smugglers is linked with the Chinese nationals,” he added.

Police officers claim that if the DRI had taken the help of police at the beginning, it would have been easier to investigate the gold smuggling case. The government gave the responsibility of investigating the case under organized crime to the CIB only after widespread pressure. The police then formed a special team under the leadership of Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjay Singh Thapa and started investigation. A week has passed since the team started its work. DSP, inspectors and junior officers working in CIB raided various companies operated by Chinese nationals but they could not reach the mastermind behind the gold smuggling. 

The officials of CIB claimed that despite having skilled manpower and resources for the investigation, it will take some time for concluding the investigation because the case was not handed in time to the police.

However, they have been stating that they will conduct an investigation to identify the root cause of the crime and solve it.

Past investigations conducted by the police also led to the peddlers at the initial stage. The mastermind of the 35 kg of smuggled gold recovered from Koteshwor by CIB in 2070 BS was not found at first. About 33.5 kg of  smuggled gold recovered in 2073 BS were recovered from outside the TIA. The investigation identified the mastermind but he could not be arrested immediately. The police were able to arrest only the peddlers in the initial stage in the case of smuggled gold seized by the police themselves. Similarly, the police were able to arrest only the transporters in the 88 kg of gold seized in 2074 BS and 33 kg of gold seized in 2074 BS. Even now, neither the DRI nor the police have reached beyond the investigation of the peddlers. 

“In the past, the investigations were concluded but the main leaders were not arrested. It cannot be said that similar problems will not occur even now,” said an officer at the police headquarters.

Nepal Police spokesperson Kuber Kadayat said that the CIB is investigating the case and it would be inappropriate to comment before the investigation concludes.

Due to the high demand for gold in India, Indian nationals are also involved in the smuggling of gold from Nepal, so the Nepal Police is also coordinating with the Indian Police. “We are also coordinating with the police of other countries as we have to investigate transnational crimes,” said a CIB source. Since a few days, CIB has been arresting suspicious people and releasing them on bail. According to CIB sources, three people were arrested four days ago but they were released as their involvement in gold smuggling was not confirmed.