KATHMANDU, Oct 6: As many as six culprits behind the infamous case of smuggling of 33 Kilograms of gold and murder of Sanam Shakya were sentenced to life imprisonment by the District Court of Morang on Tuesday. However, the court gave a clean chit to 48 other defendants of the case.
The bench of Judge Bharat Lamsal found the nine defendants guilty of their crimes and sentenced them to prison. Of them, six were sentenced to life imprisonment, one was sentenced to prison for three years, another was sentenced for one year, while the other was sentenced for six months. According to the court’s information officer, Rajendra Prasad Dhamala, the district court sentenced Tekraj Malla Thakuri, Lhakpa Sherpa, Mohan Kafle, Narendra Karki, Bhojraj Bhandari, including Goray to life imprisonment. They will each serve 20 years behind bars.
Goray was found guilty of kidnapping and taking hostage. According to Tikendra Bir Hung Rana, a distinguished member of the district court, among the nine defendants, two were Indian nationals. Of them, Rajan Kumar was sentenced to three years in prison while Madan Ghimire was sentenced to six months in prison. The convicts of the case are associates and drivers of Goray.
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As many as 77 people were made defendants in the case. Of them, a senior police officer and Goray’s wife Narbada Kharel (Neeru) including the names of 46 other defendants were cleared of the charges against them. Former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Govinda Prasad Niraoula, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sanjay Bahadur Raut, Prajit KC, and Senior Inspector Balkrishna Sanjel, too have got a clean chit from the court.
On January 23, 2018, as much as 33 Kilograms of gold smuggled by Goray and his associates from Dubai to Kathmandu vanished from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). On March 2, Goray and his associates tortured and killed Sanam Shakya for hiding the gold. The very next day, police caught drivers Mohan Kafle, Tekraj Malla Thakuri and Narendra Karki with the dead body of Shakya inside their vehicle.
During the investigation of the incident, it was found that as many as 38 quintals of gold was smuggled to Nepal between July of 2015 till August of 2016 under the investment of businessmen and the support of police officers.
Although the investigation proved that a huge quantity of gold was smuggled to Nepal, many of the accused in the case were given a clean chit. On May 2 of 2018, a number of lawsuits were registered at the District Court of Morang under the allegations of ‘formation of a criminal group for illegal trade, import and export of gold, kidnapping, taking hostage and murder.’
