The Department of Revenue Investigation on Sunday filed a case against five individuals at Kanchanpur District Court on charge of evading revenue of Rs169.28 million while smuggling 32kg of gold from India.

The defendants in the case are Laxman Tiruwa, Suraj Tiruwa, Sarita Tiruwa, Indira BK and Shankar Bahadur BK who have been accused of revenue evasion while smuggling the gold.

According to the department, Laxman had stolen the gold from Indian smugglers who had employed him as car driver some seven months ago on the New Delhi-Mizoram route. After learning from an experienced driver that the car he was driving had gold, Laxman fled to Nepal with gold, driving through Bhairahawa and arriving in his village of Jhalari in Kanchanpur district.

But police arrested Laxman and his younger brother Suraj, who was serving as a constable in the Nepal Police, with 23kg of gold.

Police said 18kg of the gold was hidden inside his brother-in-law’s house while the remaining 5kg was tucked in the chicken pen of his own home. Police submitted the gold to the department on February 16.

During the interrogation, the department had found how Laxman stole gold from the Indian smugglers. The department has already deposited the gold at the government's treasury.

But the department has filed the case against two brothers as well as three other individuals at the court demanding confiscation of yellow metal, a fine equivalent to double the value of stolen gold (Rs 338.56 million ) and three-year jail term for all five individuals under Section 23 (1) of the Revenue Investigation (Leakage and Control) Act.