KATHMANDU: The Biratnagar High Court has upheld the district court’s verdict and sentenced Chudamani Upreti, also known as “Gore,” to life imprisonment in connection with the 33-kilogram gold smuggling case and the murder of Sanam Shakya.

A joint bench of Justices Mahendra Nath Upadhyay and Prakash Chandra Adhikari on Sunday upheld the life sentence in the murder of Sanam Shakya. Following the Morang District Court’s verdict sentencing Gore to life imprisonment, Upreti has been serving his sentence in prison.

“There were separate claims and demands under a single charge sheet. In the murder case, the 20-year life imprisonment sentence has been upheld. In the other cases, the court ruled that the charges were not sufficiently substantiated,” Santosh Pokharel, information officer of the Biratnagar High Court, told Nepal News.

Sanam Shakya was murdered on 2 March 2018 in Urlabari, Morang. In that case, the district court had sentenced six individuals, including Gore, to life imprisonment. While the life sentence has been upheld in Gore’s case, the sentences of the other convicts have been reduced.

The sentences of Narendra Karki, Mohan Kafle, and Bhojraj Bhandari were reduced from 20 years to 10 years each.

Similarly, the three-year sentences handed down by the district court to Bhabin Tamang and Rajan Kumar were upheld. In the case of Madan Prasad Ghimire, the district court’s sentence of six months was increased to three years’ imprisonment.

According to Information Officer Pokharel, the high court also upheld the acquittals of those defendants who had been cleared by the district court, maintaining their acquittal.