Chinese national held at Kathmandu airport

KATHMANDU: A Chinese national has been arrested from the Tribhuvan International Airport here on Thursday afternoon in connection with the 100 kg gold seizure, believed to be one of the largest hauls in Nepal’s gold smuggling history.

On Wednesday, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) had seized a huge quantity of gold that had passed undetected through the Customs, and arrested six persons, including one Indian national and five Nepali nationals. According to the DRI, around 100 kg gold, suspected to have been brought from Hong Kong, was confiscated during the raid based on a tip-off.

The arrested Chinese national -- Ling Chuwang -- is believed to be the owner of the gold and was supposed to flee from the Kathmandu airport on Wednesday. The airport authorities arrested him while he was trying to catch a flight to China. Along with the Chinese national, one Nepali national has also been arrested, who is believed to be his local handler.

"After request from the DRI, we arrested Ling from the airport. We have handed him over to the DRI for investigation," said Jhalakram Adhikari, Director General in the Department of Immigration.

A six-member probe committee has been formed by the Department of Customs headed by Man Bahadur Poudel to probe the matter, said Information Officer Punya Bikram Khadka.

The gold was believed to be smuggled into India via Nepal, but its independent verification is yet to be made.

The gold, which was smuggled in from Hong Kong by hiding it in motorcycle spare parts, was seized just when it was about to be taken to a taxi.

After the Customs officers cleared the motorcycle spare parts, the DRI got a call in which someone tipped them off that there was gold inside the spare parts. With the support of Nepal Police, the gold was recovered from outside the Kathmandu airport by DRI officers. (IANS)

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