The Morang District Court has started recording statements from the suspects arrested in connection to the 33 kg gold smuggling case and the subsequent murder of Sanam Shakya, an alleged smuggler.
The Morang District Court has started recording statements from the suspects arrested in connection to the 33 kg gold smuggling case and the subsequent murder of Sanam Shakya, an alleged smuggler.
Nawaraj Dulal, the court registrar, on Thursday said among the 29 arrested accused, six of them— Rajan Kumar, Ekraj Malla Thakuri, Madan Prasad Ghimire, Mohan Kafle, Lakpa Sherpa and Narendra Karki— recorded their statements before District Judge Narayan Prasad Sharma on Thursday.
The court will take their statements on Friday as well.
Dulal said the statement recording process of all 29 suspects could take a few more days to be completed.
On Wednesday, the District Attorney’s Office (DAO) had filed a charge sheet against all 63 suspects, recommending Rs 17 billion and Rs 18 million in fines as per the report prepared by a high-level committee formed to probe into the case. The probe panel has concluded that Chudamani Upreti aka Gore, the alleged mastermind behind gold smuggling, and his accomplices smuggled 3,999.6 kg of gold since July 2015.
On Wednesday, police had produced the 29 arrested suspects, including former Deputy Inspector General Govinda Niraula, Senior Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani, Superintendent of Police Bikashraj Khanal, Deputy Superintendent of Polic duo Prajit KC and Sanjaya Raut, Sub-Inspector Balkrishna Sanjel and Police Constable Bishnu Khadka, before the court.
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