Kathmandu, Oct 12: Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, has been arrested in connection with the gold smuggling case involving electronic cigarettes (vapes).
According to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, Mahara was taken into custody on Sunday from his residence in Lalitpur.
Just days earlier, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had recorded Mahara’s statement over the case. The CIB had previously refrained from filing a case against him, but he has now been formally linked to the ongoing investigation.
The case dates back to December 25, 2022, when Chinese national Li Hansong arrived in Nepal via a Fly Dubai flight. He was found to have smuggled gold into the country by concealing it inside 730 electronic cigarettes (vapes) packed in 73 boxes across two suitcases. The contraband was brought through Tribhuvan International Airport.
