Hearing for judicial custody of those accused of smuggling of 33 kilograms of gold and murder of Sanam Shakya has started at the Morang District Court on Thursday.
A team of eight public prosecutors have started pleading before the bench of District Justice Narayan Prasad Sharma seeking judicial custody of the accused in course of the case.
Chief of District Attorney Office, Morang Punya Prasad Pathak said the team includes Gopal Rizal, Chiranjivi Parajuli, Himalaya Trital, Manoj Acharya, Punya Prasad Sapkota, Rohit Pokharel and Padam Wasti apart from him.
The number of advocates who have registered to plead on behalf of the 30 accused, meanwhile, has reached 79. Five of them are senior advocates and the rest are advocates, according to advocate Bharat Bahadur Thapa who is pleading on behalf of Tularam Tharu. The senior advocates include Ramesh Koirala, Hikmat Paudel, Bipulendra Chakraborty, Suresh Lal Shrestha and Rajendra Bhattarai.
Recording statements of the accused that started before the bench of District Judge Sharma had ended Tuesday evening.
Chief of District Attorney Office, Morang Pathak said all the accused have given different statements to that they had given earlier to the police and probe committee.
Cases were filed against 63 persons including nine serving and former police personnel with claims of Rs 17.018 billion in the smuggling of 33 kilograms of gold and murder of Shakya.
The probe committee formed under Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry Ishwor Raj Paudel has concluded that the gang of Chuda Mani Uprety, aka Gore, smuggled 3,799.559 kilograms of gold in the past five years after studying the recovered diary of absconding Uprety and documents seized from other accused. The claim amount was calculated by a team of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on the basis of market value of the smuggled gold.
The District Attorney Office, Morang lodged cases of organized crime, kidnapping and murder against the 63 persons in the 163-page charge-sheet, according to Pathak.
The police have arrested 29 persons including former DIG Govinda Niraula, SSP Divesh Lohani, SP Bikash Raj Khanal, DSPs Prajit KC and Sanjay Raut, Sub Inspector Bal Krishna Sanjel and Constable Bishnu Khadka, and handed them over to the court.
RPP leader Bhujung Gurung, gold trader Mahavir Golyan, promoter of RK Jewelers Rajendra Man Shakya, staffer of Thai Airways Lal Bahadur Magar, Hemanta Gautam, Birendra Man Shrestha, Sambir Tolange, Bal Krishna Shrestha, Doram Khatri, Kapil Raj Puri, Gopal Shrestha, Punya Lama, Rajan Thapa, Raju Maharjan, Amar Dangol, Tularam Tharu. Mohan Kafle, Ek Raj Malla, Narendra Karki, Lakpa Sherpa, Mohan Ghimire, Rajan Kumar have also been handed over to the court.
The police have also filed cases against the alleged ringleader of gold smuggling Chuda Mani Uprety, SSP Shyam Khatri, Ramesh Uprety, Niru Kharel, Mohan Kumar Agrawal, Durga Kharel Uprety, Chetan Bhandari, Sunal Agrawal, Pramod Shrestha, Rohit Acharya, Dava Sherpa, Bhoj Raj Bhandari, Bhim Kumari Kharel, Dolendra Prasad Kharel, Krishna Basnet, Bhavin Rai, Kamal Karki, Sandeep Khadka, Prayas Parajuli and Surendra Gautam naming them as fugitive defendant.
The issue of 33 kilograms of gold smuggled through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on January 23 came to the fore after the body of Shakya of Urlabari, who died while being tortured on charge of stealing that gold, was recovered in Biratnagar on March 2.
