The Revenue Investigation Department has filed a case in the Lalitpur District Court against 12 people including Chairman of Silk Group Pvt. Ltd. Ramesh Sherpa for the illegal trade of Chinese electronic cigarettes (Vape) demanding a fine of 2.5 billion and imprisonment.

In the import trade with China, Silk, which has been operating transportation services through nearly 100 containers, was investigated by the department on the suspicion of doing illegal business in the past. 

Last December 22, 86 thousand 400 vape were recovered from the silk godown Mahalakshmi Municipality-4 Sheetalhite and hidden. The next day, the department seized documents and computer devices from Balkumari and Naxal warehouses operated under Silk Group. On the basis of the additional evidence found during the search, Chairman Sherpa, Silk's employee Vijay Sherpa (Ramesh's cousin) was made the main accused.

Although the import of silk was stopped, the investigation was intensified after it was found that vape was being sold openly in the main cities including Kathmandu. The government has stopped the import of vape . But President Sherpa used to import vape through Tatopani Customs. He is not in touch now .  According to the information released by Krishna Kumari Shrestha, the spokesperson of the

department, Mahesh Prasad Pathak, the owner of the warehouse used by Silk to store vape, and Santosh Parajuli, an employee of Silk, have been requested to receive a base sentence from the main accused.

Sitting in Tatopani, all management was arranged by Vijay. Even now, Tatopani Customs has kept the vape brought by Silk last March in its warehouse .

Department of Commerce has not banned the import, but the circular of the Ministry of Health has been stopping the import of vape . According to the department, it has been seen that 38 thousand 924 vape in stock have been sold without issuing a bill of lading to five other different companies under Silk . Silk Group and seven firms under it have been shown fake documents of local purchase of a total of 3 lakh 16 thousand 315 vapes that were smuggled through the customs checkpoint. Also, the department said that by creating fake transactions at more than one level, the source of purchase was not shown, and the value added tax (VAT) was deducted and the revenue was leaked.

A case was filed earlier in the case of vape being illegally imported and kept in the warehouse on different dates and seized last December. Even after the filing of the case, another case has been launched during further investigation.

It has been seen that 87 crores 31 lakhs 23 thousand 850 revenue has been leaked from the defendants in all cases of illegal importation and fake purchase and sale of vape. Based on that, the said amount has been disbursed. Navraj Adhikari, information officer of the information department, informed that a case with fines of 1 billion 74 crore 62 lakh 47 thousand 657 to be collected from the defendant was registered in Lalitpur district court on Thursday.