March 19, 2024
KATHMANDU – The Kathmandu District Court on Monday remanded CPN (Maoist Centre) Vice-Chair and former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara to four days in custody in connection with a gold smuggling case.
Chandra Prasad Panthi, information officer at the court, said a single bench of judge Durga Prasad Khanal remanded him in custody.
Mahara, who was arrested earlier in the day from Pakadi of Kapilvastu district, was brought to the Capital from the Bhairahawa airport and was taken directly to the Central Investigation Bureau’s (CIB) office in Lazimpat.
He was then taken to the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office and produced before the court for a remand.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane on Sunday had ordered police to implement a report of the inquiry commission on large-scale gold smuggling that pointed out Mahara’s ‘involvement’ in the case.
The commission headed by Dilli Raj Acharya, a former High Court chief judge, submitted its report on Thursday accusing the CIB of making deliberate efforts not to investigate Mahara, then director general of the Department of Immigration Jhalak Ram Adhikari, and former Nepal Police chief and UML leader Sarbendra Khanal in the gold scam.
After receiving the report, Home Minister Lamichhane submitted it to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal following which the Cabinet on Friday had decided to implement the recommendations of the inquiry commission.
The commission submitted its report after studying the lapses in police investigation into the smuggling of 60kg of gold, which was hidden inside motorcycle brake shoes last year, and 9kg of gold concealed inside electronic cigarettes in December 2022.
The District Attorney’s Office filed a case against Rahul, son of former Speaker Mahara, in October last year for his suspected role in smuggling 9 kg of gold.
The CIB had taken Rahul into police custody on August 30 last year for investigation. As per a government report, it was established that the father-son duo had been in regular contact with the Chinese gold smugglers, engaging in 256 phone conversations.
Previously, police had inquired with senior Mahara, who is also a vice-chair of the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre), about the smuggling of gold after he was found to be in constant touch with Chinese smugglers. Despite suspicion, police didn’t record the statement of senior Mahara in the presence of the government attorney as required by the law.