The Morang District Court has sent Nepal Police SSP Shyam Bahadur Khatri to judicial custody in the case of smuggling of 33 kilograms of gold and murder of Sanam Shakya.
The court has sent Khatri to judicial custody following a hearing on Thursday about whether he should be kept in custody during the investigation or not.
Khatri, who was absconding for around two months, had surrendered to the court on Thursday after the police issued a diffusion notice in his name two days back alerting member states of Interpol for his arrest.
Khatri denied involvement in gold smuggling in his statement after his surrender.
The committee formed to investigate smuggling of 33 kilograms of gold and murder of Sanam Shakya had raided Khatri’s house in Lokanthali, Bhaktapur, that of his wife’s brother in Pepsicola and another relative in Koteshwore in the past few days.
The main accused in the case Chuda Mani Uprety, aka Gore, has claimed that Khatri was above him in the pecking order for gold smuggling.
A total of 28 accused including eight police personnel have already been sent to judicial custody in the case. One has been granted bail while another has been released on date.
The issue of 33 kilograms of gold smuggled through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on January 23 came to the fore after the body of Shakya of Urlabari, who died while being tortured on charge of stealing that gold, was recovered in Biratnagar on March 2.