Biratnagar, April 10

Police in Morang have started investigating the high-profile gold smuggling case exposed after the carrier was murdered by bringing persons arrested from the capital in connection with the case to the district today.

Earlier, 12 persons were detained by a committee formed by the government under the leadership of Joint-secretary Ishwor Poudel at the Home Ministry to investigate the case related to 33 kg gold brought illegally from the UAE.

“As for the arrested persons, they are in detention at the District Police Office and are being investigated with permission from the court,” said SP Arun Kumar BC of Morang, adding the government team was also investigating the case separately.

Further, SP BC stopped short of revealing details about the case. “As the investigation team from the centre too is here, we can’t say anything more about the case now,” he said.

On March 3, a joint team of Metropolitan Crime Investigation Division and Morang Police had detained three persons who were heading to some secrete location to dump a body, which was identified as belonging to Sanam Sakya of Morang, in a Mahindra Scorpio jeep.

The detained persons with the body are Narendra Karki and Mohan Kafle of Urlabari; and Tekraj Malla Thakuri of Mandan Deupur Rural Municipality, Kavre.

The main person behind the smuggling is said to be Chudamani Upreti, aka Gore, of Urlabari. As per police, Gore is at large ever since Shakya’s death and Shakya had been electrocuted on Gore’s instruction.