Kathmandu, Nov 4: The government has moved the Supreme Court, arguing that a High Court ruling in the 33.5 kg gold smuggling and murder of Morang’s Sanam Shakya cases has seriously undermined the investigation and prosecution of financial and organised crimes.
The Office of the Attorney General filed an appeal after the Dashain holiday, seeking to overturn the High Court’s verdict. The appeal alleges serious legal errors, arguing that the court acquitted defendants despite evidence of large-scale illegal gold trading.
The government has questioned why the High Court imposed penalties only for offences related to Shakya’s murder and abduction while remaining silent on the alleged illegal trade in gold worth billions of rupees and the organised crime charges. It has also challenged the acquittal of key defendants on gold smuggling charges and what it considers lenient sentences for other offences.
The appeal challenges the verdict delivered on Magh 25, 2082, by a joint bench of High Court judges Mahendranath Upadhyaya and Prakashchandra Adhikari. The government has expressed dissatisfaction with the court’s interpretation of the law, exercise of judicial discretion and assessment of evidence after the defendants were acquitted of the main charges related to gold smuggling, its distribution and management, and the operation of an organised criminal group.
The appeal outlines several risks the government believes the verdict poses to the criminal justice system. These include weakening the ability to identify the actual nature of organised crime, failing to establish links between related criminal activities, and making it harder to recover proceeds of crime and assets used to commit offences.
The High Court had ruled that the charges of organised crime and customs evasion linked to the gold smuggling case were not established against any of the defendants. Of the 65 people prosecuted, three key defendants, Chudamani Upreti, alias Gore, Tekraj Malla Thakuri and Lakpa Sherpa, were convicted of murder related offences but acquitted of gold smuggling.
Upreti was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and punished for abduction and hostage taking. The court also ordered him to pay a fine and compensation. However, it ruled that the charges against him under the Customs Act and the Organised Crime Prevention Act had not been established.
The life sentences imposed on Thakuri and Sherpa for murder were also upheld. However, both were acquitted of charges related to abduction, hostage taking, customs offences and organised crime.
The High Court reduced the life sentences imposed by the district court on Mohan Kafle, Narendra Karki, alias Krishna, and Bhojraj Bhandari, alias Bhoje Mama, to 10 years in prison each.
The three year prison sentence imposed on another defendant, Rajan Kumar, was upheld. The High Court increased the six month sentence imposed on Madanprasad Ghimire, alias Madhav, by the district court to three years.
The High Court also upheld the district court’s decision to acquit most defendants of the charges against them. It ruled that the allegations of gold smuggling had not been proven against any of the accused.
The appeal further argues that the verdict could deny justice to the victims and their families and encourage impunity.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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