On July 16, Dhiraj Kumar Pandit, a 22-year-old resident of Tilathi Koiladi Rural Municipality-5, was sentenced to 12 years and 3 months imprisonment for the rape of a 14-year and 5-month-old girl.
District Judge Hark Bahadur Chhetri’s bench, after finding the accused guilty, imposed a fine of Rs. 500,000 along with a compensation amount of Rs. 500,000 to be paid to the victim. Additionally, the court ordered the accused to contribute Rs. 2,200 to the Criminal Offenses Victims Relief Fund.
The victim’s father lodged a complaint at the District Police Office on February 13, 2023, stating that the accused had raped his daughter repeatedly from July 7, 2022, to February 11, 2023. It is alleged that the accused, promising to marry the girl, lured her and took her to Bhimnagar, India, where the rape occurred.
According to the victim’s father, the accused took her to Delhi on July 8, 2022. After receiving information about the situation on January 28, 2023, the victim was rescued and brought back to Nepal on February 12, 2023. The District Police Office arrested the accused on February 13 and registered a complaint on February 14.
The charge sheet was filed in the district court on March 8, and the accused has been incarcerated in Rajbiraj Jail since March 12, 2023, under the jurisdiction of Judge Lalkaji Shrestha’s bench. The accused claimed that he had gone to India with the victim’s consent and stayed there for four months. He stated that they had been in a relationship for three and a half years. The accused further mentioned that due to the victim’s threat of self-harm if he traveled abroad, he postponed his plans and instead went to India with the victim.