The Morang District Court on Tuesday has slapped life sentence on Chuda Mani Uprety (aka Gore) in the case of smuggling of 33 kilograms of gold and murder of Sanam Shakya.
The bench of Judge Bharat Lamsal has handed over life sentence to the ringleader of gold smuggling.
All the Nepal Police personnel charged in the case, meanwhile, have been acquitted. The police personnel to get clean chit include DIG Divesh Lohani, former DIG Govinda Prasad Niraula, former SSP Shyam Bahadur Khatri, SP Bikash Raj Khanal, SP Prajit KC, Sub Inspector Bal Krishna Sanjel, and Head Constables Amar Bahadur Thapa Magar and Bishnu Thapa.
The issue of 33 kilograms of gold smuggled through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on January 23, 2018 came to the fore after the body of Shakya of Urlabari, Morang who died while being tortured on charge of stealing that gold, was recovered in Biratnagar on March 2.
The probe committee formed under Joint Secretary at the then Home Ministry Ishwor Raj Paudel had concluded that the gang of Chuda Mani Uprety, aka Gore, smuggled 3,799.559 kilograms of gold in the five years till 2018 after studying the recovered diary of Uprety and documents seized from other accused.
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 claim amount was calculated by a team of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on the basis of market value of the smuggled gold.
Twenty-two of the accused are still absconding while most of those who were arrested or who surrendered before the court have been released on bail.
