The Kathmandu District Attorney Office on Sunday filed a case against 29 people at the District Court, Kathmandu, for their involvement in the smuggling of 60kg of gold in July.

Dipak Dahal, information officer at the court, informed that the Kathmandu District Attorney Office has implicated 26, who are already in judicial custody, and three others on the run.

According to Dahal, nine defendants are foreign nationals. The court will start hearing the case on Monday, he said.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police on September 13 submitted its investigation report to the Kathmandu District Attorney Office recommending prosecution of the 29.

The attorney's office, however, decided not to prosecute six of those arrested in connection with the smuggling as they were found uninvolved.

The accused has been charged with illegal import and smuggling of gold, money laundering and organised crime.

The investigation team has estimated that over 362 kg and 778 grams of gold was smuggled in multiple shipments from Hong Kong by concealing inside other goods, said Achyut Mani Neupane, the chief district attorney.

It was found that the gold was sold in the Nepali and Indian markets. The district attorney has fixed the value of smuggled gold at Rs3.5 billion and sought its recovery from those accused.

“The Customs Act, Nepal Rastra Bank Act, the Act on Prevention of Organised Crime 2014 and Criminal (Code) Act 2017 have been invoked in the case,” said Neupane.

Also, cases will be filed against more individuals if evidence is found against them.

In the case of some civil servants suspected to have aided the smuggling, the attorney's office has written to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority for necessary action, said Neupane.

Others, including traders, if found involved in buying or selling the smuggled gold, will be prosecuted for money laundering.

Some of the charge-sheeted are Chinese nationals Yao Pucheng, Li Wen Tsung, Li Nengkai, Ding Sheng Fa, Lin Zeqiang, Mi Tian, and Yang Wen, Indian national Thupting Tsering (from North Delhi) and one Belgian, Dawa Tsering. Other defendants are Nepali citizens—Harkaraj Rai, Krishna Kumar Shrestha, Puskar Raj Bhatta, Rajendra Kumar Rai, Yadav Parajuli, Sudarshan Gautam, Ram Kumar Bhujel, Dilip Bhujel, Suman Kharel, Shiva Kumar Sharraf, Kishore Basnet, Santosh Chand, Ganesh Prasad Paudel, Birendra Nepali, Kumar Dhakal, Saroj Shrestha and Rukmina Subba. Other three defendants, who are still on the run, are Bhola Sah Sonar, Jeevan Chalaune and Amala Roka.

On July 18, the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) seized the smuggled gold from the Sinamangal area near the Tribhuvan International Airport soon after it had exited the airport.

Later, the DRI handed over the case to the CIB for further investigation.

The gold, packed in eight sealed cartons, was sent to the mint division of the central bank for weighing. The gross weight of the consignment seized was determined to be 155 kg. The mint division later melted the smuggled gold, which had been smuggled as motorcycle brake pads, and found that the weight of pure gold was 60.789kg.

After the July 18 seizure, police raided a warehouse in Kathmandu and seized several cartons of brake pads. After examining those brake pads, police estimated that an additional 302.062kg of gold had also been smuggled into Nepal in the same fashion. Thus, the police concluded that the racketeers had smuggled a total of 362.778kg of gold worth Rs3.5 billion and recommended the prosecution of the accused accordingly, according to CIB press statement.