BIRATNAGAR: In a major corruption bust that police kept under wraps for days, a high-ranking official of the Nepal government was caught at Biratnagar Airport trying to board a flight to Kathmandu with Rs 665,000 in unaccounted cash hidden in his luggage.

The official, Under Secretary Mikmar Tamang—Chief of the Program Implementation Unit in Morang under the President Chure-Terai Madhesh Conservation Development Committee—was taken into custody after failing to prove the legal origin of the funds.

Tamang, a resident of Bhimeshwar Municipality-9 in Dolakha, was preparing to fly to the capital on a Buddha Air flight on July 19.

During routine security screening at the airport, security personnel detected a suspect black bag carried by Tamang.

A physical search revealed Rs 665,000 stuffed inside, comprising 515 bills of Rs 1,000 denomination and 300 bills of Rs 500 denomination.

When security officers questioned Tamang regarding the source of the money, he failed to offer a satisfactory explanation, leading to his immediate detention.

Police Sub-Inspector Rajendra Timsina, who was deployed at the airport, transferred Tamang along with the seized cash to the Financial Crime Branch of the District Police Office in Morang on the same day for further investigation.

Standard protocol usually sees law enforcement issue immediate press releases even for minor cash seizures, but Morang police kept this high-profile arrest involving a senior official completely hidden from the public for nearly a week.

When pressed for clarity, Superintendent of Police Kabit Katuwal, Chief of the District Police Office in Morang, admitted that the incident was under investigation and stated that the individual in custody had been unable to demonstrate the source of his assets.

He added that the police were preparing to submit their investigation report to the District Government Attorney’s Office.

Sources suspect that high-level political and administrative pressure is the main reason police initially kept the arrest quiet.

The timing coincided with the end of the Nepali fiscal year, a period notorious for rapid budget disbursements and project sign-offs.

Sources claim Tamang was heading to Kathmandu carrying kickbacks and commission money collected from various regional development schemes to appease power centers in the capital.

A serving government official carrying a large sum of undocumented cash directly points to high-level corruption. In such circumstances, the decision by police to keep the arrest secret rather than making it public has drawn heavy criticism and raised serious doubts over the transparency of the investigation.