-KATHMANDU
The Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu has arrested a person for possessing 457 grams of smuggled gold.
A team of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala held 28-year-old Faizad Alam of Sunsari on Monday after being tipped-off that gold was being smuggled in from Tribhuvan International Airport using Nepali migrant workers returning home from foreign employment as carriers.
The police paraded Alam holding a press conference Tuesday. Spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Range, Deputy Superintendent Mohan Kumar Thapa, said that Alam was arrested from in front of the main gate to the Airport when he was loitering around in a suspicious manner.
Police confiscated seven gold bangles and five rings from him. They are worth Rs 2.194 million in the current market price. Alam has been sent to the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office for necessary action.
Carrying huge amount of gold is not permitted through the air transport and is considered illegal. Normal passengers cannot take gold except for their personal use.
But the major concern is about the clearance of such a big amount of gold from the customs department at the airport. Previously too such incidents of gold capture had occurred and a big question arises for the airport authority to find out who was lethal on the crimes happening at the airport.
Most of the Nepali gold market has relied on illegal channels. Smugglers use both land and air routes. While major smuggling air routes to Kathmandu are from Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, land routes are from China to India.
