KATHMANDU, August 4: The national flag-carrier Nepal Airlines Corporations’ narrow body aircraft RA-320 was scheduled to fly to Mumbai, India on Wednesday. The crew members had already prepared for the flight as per the scheduled take-off at 1:10 PM.

The passengers were cheering, clicking pictures, getting their boarding passes and boarding the plane. The traffic jam was removed for the take-off.

In the meantime, the crew was informed that the flight would not take off. After information from the tower, the plane did not take off on the scheduled time. Shortly after that, a Nepal Police team entered the aircraft. A team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police came and got all the passengers off the flight and started searching. During that time, the CIB also started to take the identity of the passengers.  

Suddenly, while taking introductions, the poli ce team arrested a passenger. The arrested man was Santosh Lamichhane, a gold and silver businessman from Kailali. He was going to Mumbai to participate in the '38th International Jewelry Exhibition-2022' along with his wife Meena Lamichhane. The team of the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silvers Dealers Association, Kailali was going with him. However, the police took Santosh into custody.

Later the flight took off for Mumbai with the remaining 138 passengers after being delayed for 2 hours and 10 minutes. In various media, there was a rumor that a ‘terrorist’ had been caught. However, the police clarified that Santosh, who was arrested, is not a terrorist. “The rumor that he is a terrorist is baseless. There is a gold theft case filed against him at Kailali District Police Office. We arrested him after we learned about this,,” said Nepal Police Spokesperson Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Tek Prasad Rai. 

Rai informed Republica that Lamichhane was going to be sent back to Kailali for further investigation and prosecution. “Kailali police is investigating his case. Therefore, we arrested him so that he could be sent to Kailali," said DIG Rai.

Accused of buying stolen gold

The arrested Santosh owns a gold and silver shop in Kailali. According to the locals, he has been in this business for a long time. According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Somendra Singh Rathore of the District Police Office, Kailali, Santosh has been accused of buying stolen gold. "He is accused of buying stolen gold from India," SP Rathore said, “We couldn’t arrest him earlier as we did not have enough evidence. But now, after finding enough evidence, we have arrested him.”

SP Rathore said that the delay in the arrest would affect the investigation, so Lamichhane had to be arrested immediately. He said, "We have gathered enough evidence to nab him." Once the evidence is collected, the accused should be caught as soon as possible. Otherwise, the investigation would be affected. So we had to arrest him without losing any more time.”

SP Rathore also said that Kailali Police had not told the police headquarters that Lamichhane was a terrorist. “We never said that he is a terrorist,” SP Rathore said.  

According to sources, in Sudurpaschim, there are gangs of thieves who bring gold stolen from different places of India to Nepal. Such gangs steal large amounts of gold kept legally/illegally by goldsmiths in India and bring the stolen gold to Nepal. The members of such gangs, businessmen and security personnel distribute such stolen gold among themselves. In some cases, buying and selling is also done at cheaper rates. There is not much problem if the gold stolen from goldsmiths in India is illegal. But in the case of legal gold, some problems occur. Caution is taken as a case may also come through Interpol.

 
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