The police have entrusted the Revenue Investigation Department with further investigation into the foreign currency worth 25 million rupees seized on Monday night in a truck going to China via Rasuwa. The department has initiated an investigation into the violation of the Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act, 2019 with an adjournment from the Patan High Court. But there is increased interest in whether or not the recovered foreign currency will be revealed.
This kind of interest and question has been raised because the department has ended the investigation without finding the 'owner' in similar incidents.
Even in the incident of last December, the department has not been able to find the person concerned. In May, 86,000 vape were seized from a warehouse in Imadol. In that process, two people who were waiting in the warehouse were arrested. But the department could not find out who was the owner of the godown and vape. After a person with the surname Sherpa posted a bond of 250 million in the Revenue Investigation Department, two people who waited in the warehouse were released last February.
In June, 120,000 pieces of vape, which were brought to Nepal by evading revenue, were seized from the northern border and from the Terai while being taken to Madhesh. Even in these cases, the main person has not been identified.
"It is not easy to find the owner in this incident like the vape incident," says an investigation officer of the department, "most of those arrested when carrying smuggled gold from Tatopani and Kerung are only porters or middlemen, the same style is seen in most of the illegal trade done by the Chinese using Nepalis." According to a police officer involved in the investigation, no 'clue' has been found to meet the 'owner' even from the details on Kusang's mobile phone. An officer of the
department says that some serious questions have arisen in this incident. What kind of goods or service transactions are trying to pay so much money? Because such a large amount of money was seized at one time, did foreign currency go out of the country in this way before? He says that the question has been raised.
"It is not easy to find out the detailed facts until the owner of the illegal foreign currency is found," says Chandi Prasad Ghimire, Director General of the Revenue Investigation Department, "It is certain that such a large sum of money was sent to China through Kerung to pay for some item." Kusang of Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality-1, who was arrested, has also been caught in gold smuggling before and the officials involved in the investigation have suspected this. The container No. 7 B 1652 seized with the money is in the name of Lama's mother. According to the officials involved in the investigation, Kusang will not know even if the container is kept in the garage for three weeks to hide the money and a 'false bottom' is made.
Rasuwa customs chief Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai says that gold was recovered three times during his tenure, but in all three cases the owner was not found. "Nobody who brings gold tells the truth, no matter how much they try to deceive, they say it's mine and the owner doesn't tell," he says. Bhattarai's guess is that they are trying to take the money to China to pay the gold or vape theft money.
