Advocates, defending the accused in the 33-kg gold smuggling case and the subsequent murder of an alleged gold smuggler Sanam Shakya, have asked the Morang District Court to release their clients on general date.

Citing that the charges leveled against the suspects under organised crime Act does not hold any ground, senior advocates Shambhu Thapa, Raman Shrestha, Yadunath Khanal and Raju Basnet on Sunday presented their defence to the bench of Judge Narayan Prasad Sharma.

The senior advocates hired from Kathmandu argued that a smuggling case cannot be registered against their clients as the alleged smuggled gold from the Tribhuvan Internation Airport has not been recovered yet adding that registers and document papers collected from the residence of the accused would not count as evidences in the case.

Senior advocates Thapa and Shrestha defended for businessman and Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Bhujung Gurung and suspended SP Bikas Raj Khanal. Shrestha also defended former DIG Govinda Niraula.

While, another senior advocate Yadunath Khanal stood in defence for SP Khanal. Likewise, advocate Basnet defended the Thai Air staffer during today’s trail hearing.

The defence advocates also argued that it was meaningless to hold the trail at Morang since the incident allegedly took place at Kathmandu-based TIA, adding that Morang does not have the jurisdiction to hold trail on the case.