Nepali CIB police to investigate series of mysterious disappearances of aircraft parts
KATHMANDU — The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepali Police has been investigating a series of mysterious disappearances of aircraft parts belonging to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) at the airport in capital Kathmandu.
NAC has lost a fly away kit and spare wheels of its Boeing 757 and the landing gear of its Twin Otter aircraft in less than a year. The equipment is estimated to be worth 150 million Nepali rupees (some 1.9 million U.S. dollars), the newspapers reported .
The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) had requested the Home Ministry to conduct a probe after earlier investigations made by the ministry and the national flag carrier were fruitless.
The ministry’s move comes after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee directed it to take strong action against those involved in the thefts
While the MoTCA formed a four-member committee to look into the thefts, a ministry official said they were a “criminal case” rather than abuse of authority and thus a case for the Home Ministry.
On March 10, an investigation committee was formed as per the directives of the MoTCA to probe the theft of a fly away kit of NAC’s Boeing 757. However, the probe team did not come up with anything.
NAC turned to the government for help after its probes turned up blank. “A big nexus within NAC is involved in these thefts, and the government should step in to investigate them,” NAC’s Executive Chairman Manarup Shahi told lawmakers at the PAC meeting on Nov 30
