Nepal: Opposition, some MPs in ruling coalition demand resignation of Home Minister in gold smuggling case

Kathmandu [Nepal], July 26 : As the investigative agencies have failed to name the main accused in the case of smuggling of a quintal of gold disguised as brakeshoes, the opposition as well as some lawmakers of the ruling coalition have demanded the resignation of Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
Speaking at Wednesday’s parliamentary meeting, the Chief Whip of the main opposition CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) stood from their seat and wanted their demands to be met.
 “If we look at the security of the airport, in the past year, it has been loosened, ineffective, inactive. Quintals of gold are now being smuggled into the nation,” UML Chief Whip Padam Giri alleged at the parliamentary meeting.
Furthermore, Giri accused the ruling CPN-Maoist Center and former House Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara of being involved in the gold smuggling case and demanded a high-level parliamentary committee probe into the latest smuggling incident.
“Within the past two to three months about 20 quintals of gold have been smuggled into the nation. The ministers on board the government are involved in hiding the culprits and making all the settings. We cannot neglect these serious issues. Therefore, we demand a serious investigation of the issue from the government side by forming a high-level investigation committee. We also demand a direct ruling from the house speaker to form a committee to investigate the issue,” Giri added.
Along with that, Member of Parliament (MP) from the ruling Nepali Congress Sunil Sharma also demanded the resignation of Home Minister Shrestha and Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, claiming they are not fit for the post after the latest scandal of gold smuggling.
Laying out a series of examples of immediate resignation from posts surrounding the controversy and scandals from Nepal and the world context, Sharma, a member of parliament from the ruling Nepali Congress, suggested that both ministers resign.
 “Current Finance Minister and the Home Minister in this investigation should have been able to confirm that we’ve caught the main culprit behind the smuggle or give a deadline to find them. Otherwise, in order to further facilitate the investigation should step down from their post until and unless the main person behind the smuggling is caught,” Sharma said.
Sharma also warned that he would stage a hunger strike inside Parliament itself if the government did not arrest the main leader of the gold smuggling scam.
The opposition CPN-UML on Wednesday’s meeting resorted to house obstruction by chanting slogans standing in the rostrum which forced the meeting to be adjourned till Monday, July 31 at 1 pm.
Confiscated gold is yet to be weighed.
The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) on July 18 confiscated smuggled gold expected to weigh about 100 Kilograms from a cargo package that arrived from Hong Kong.
Hidden inside the motorbike part- the Brake Shoe, DRI is yet to determine the exact quantity of gold though the packages weigh 155 kilograms including the brake shoes and the electric shavers.
As many as eight cartons containing the smuggled gold, which had passed the airport customs undetected, were seized from a taxi cab at Sinamangal, a location close to the Tribhuvan International Airport.
The seized gold in sealed cartons was brought to the Mint Division of the Nepal Rastra Bank for weighing and the gross weight of the consignment seized was determined to be 155kg.
The wax-sealed packages handed over to the central bank- the Nepal Rastra Bank is yet to be opened and weighed as the DRI- investigating body is due to make a formal request. The smugglers had stashed the gold among other metal items to pass them off as regular merchandise.
The latest seizure suggests that the Tribhuvan International Airport continues to be the gateway for large-scale smuggling of gold. The Department of Revenue Investigation by Wednesday has been able to round up about one-and-a-half-dozen people but the person at the top of the string remains anonymous.