KATHMANDU, May 10: A team from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office (KVCIO) arrested two individuals carrying Rs 9.8 million in illegal funds made from hundi (illegal money transfer) on Thursday night.

The suspects, 28-year-old Samir Sunar and 29-year-old Milan BK, both from Rupandehi, were arrested after a car chase that began near Singha Durbar and ended in Maligaun. The KVCIO made the arrests public on Friday.

The police had received information that the Ford Company’s EcoSport car numbered  Ba 13 Cha 4858 contained a suspicious amount of cash and potentially illegal gold. The vehicle was moving from Singha Durbar south gate towards Hanumanthan when the KVCIO team started searching.

Sunar was driving the car while BK was in the passenger seat. The cardboard cartoons filled the back seat, but the police decided to wait until the car reached a safer location to conduct a search.

Once the car reached Maligaun, the police stopped it and directed Sunar to drive to the Maligaun Police Circle. There, the KVCIO team thoroughly searched the car and  recovered Rs 9.8 million in cash hidden in the cartoons. While investigating Sunar and BK, who were arrested on charges of possessing illegal money,  it was revealed that they were also involved in gold smuggling.

Further investigation revealed that BK had previously been implicated in a gold smuggling case involving 11 kg of gold seized by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and Dolakha District Police Office last October from Bigu Rural Municipality-1 of Dolakha. BK had used hundi and cryptocurrencies to finance gold smuggling from China. Police said that Sunar also had connections to gold smuggling.

SP Rabindra Regmi said that the KVCIO transferred both BK and Sunar to the  District Police Office, Kathmandu, for further investigation.

 
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