Court sends Rahul Mahara to jail for judicial custody

Kathmandu / Oct 13: The Kathmandu District Court on Friday ordered Rahul Mahara, son of former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, to be sent to jail for judicial custody in connection with gold smuggling.

A single bench of Judge Dandapani Sharma sent him to jail for further investigation until the case was brought to a conclusion. Another defendant, Lokendra Bahadur Paudel, has been released on a bail of Rs500,000, said Deepak Dahal, the court’s information officer.

On August 30, Rahul was arrested for allegedly smuggling nine kilograms of gold concealed in e-cigarettes (vapes) in December last year. The Kathmandu District Attorney Office on Wednesday had filed a case against four individuals, including Rahul, on charge of organised crime.

The case was registered as per Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau’s (CIB) recommendation to prosecute the accused involved in the smuggling of nine kilograms of gold concealed in e-cigarettes (vapes) in December last year.

On December 25 last year, the airport customs office had seized a consignment of electronic cigarettes, some of which were stolen from the warehouse of the customs office, prompting the CIB investigation. According to police, they later found gold concealed in them.

The CIB’s investigation found the Mahara father-son in regular contact with a Chinese national who was allegedly smuggling gold, hiding the precious metal in e-cigarette consignments. The Maharas have been refuting the allegations.

Previously, police had inquired with senior Mahara, who is also a vice-chair of the ruling party CPN (Maoist Centre), about the smuggling of gold after it was found that he had contacts with Chinese smugglers. Like in the case of former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab scam, senior Mahara was not interrogated in the presence of the government attorney.

A senior police officer said that the former Speaker was just inquired as it was not found necessary to interrogate him in the presence of the government attorney. And no case has been filed against him.