Biratnagar, May 21

Counterarguments in cases related to the smuggling of 33 kg gold and the related murder of Sanam Shakya started at Morang District Court today.

After all the 56 defence lawyers concluded their pleadings yesterday, public prosecutors took over today to counter the arguments presented by defence lawyers. On the first day of the counterargument session, Morang District Attorney Punya Prasad Pathak countered  the defence’s arguments.

Deputy attorney Chiranjivi Parajuli, assistant district attorneys Padam Prasad Wasti and Rohit Pokharel will reply to the questions posed by defence lawyers on Day 2 of the counterargument session tomorrow. The court is likely to issue its order on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Following an investigation opened in the wake of Shakya’s murder, Government Attorney’s Office of Morang on May 2 had filed cases against 63 persons at Morang District Court claiming that they had smuggled around 38 quintals of gold worth over 17.018 billion rupees over the years since 2015.

Thirty three of those charge-sheeted in connection with the smuggling and murder are still absconding.