KATHMANDU, JUNE 14 The Nepal Police have arrested an operator of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Budhanilkantha Municipality-5 for a case related to a child sexual abuse incident. ISKCON member Suraj Krishna Shrestha is in police custody for investigation into child-related offences, said SP Pawan Kumar Bhattarai, spokesperson for the District Police Range Kathmandu, told The Himalayan Times. He confirmed that Suraj Krishna Shrestha is in custody for an offence under the Children's Act. The case is still being investigated, and according to police, there is only one complaint and no multiple charges at this time. 'He is in our custody,' said Bhattarai. 'He has been arrested in connection with an offence under the Children's Act. It is under investigation,' he said regarding the status of the case, adding, 'There are no multiple charges.' SP Bhattarai further said, 'There is one complaint, and the investigation is being carried out on that complaint.' When asked about reports of a rape allegation, the officer said, 'That is not the case. Shrestha has been taken in for investigation over an offence under that Act.' He also stated that the arrest took place around four days ago. Meanwhile, a series of shocking criminal complaints filed at the District Police Range, Kathmandu, have exposed an institutional nightmare of extreme physical torture and sexual exploitation of minor children at the Bhaktivedanta Gurukul run by International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Budhanilkantha. Official case files reviewed by The Himalayan Times expose an internal conspiracy involving high-level institutional threats, destruction of evidence and manipulation, revealing systemic brutality against a five-year-old boy and multi-year sexual abuse of a young girl. The victim's relative has lodged an official complaint, claiming that the operator of the Gurukul, Suraj Krishna Shrestha, has terrorised the relative's minor son from April 2023 to January 2024. The child endured repeated, horrific physical punishments. Shrestha systematically tortured the five-year-old, forcing him into painful stress positions and hanging him upside down with sharp iron pins piercing his thighs, calves and soles of his feet. Other instances of psychological and physical terror involved pressing the child's chest against iron railings and dragging him repeatedly in front of an aggressive bull inside the compound while the administrators threatened to let the animal attack him, one of the victim's relatives told The Himalayan Times. 'The boy was also made to do forced labour, made to wash heavy institutional dishes and starved for seven days in a row on a punitive diet of dry beaten rice (chiura) only, which resulted in severe malnutrition and emergency hospitalisation,' the relative told THT. As per details mentioned in the complaint, the minor was forced to sleep next to communal toilets during an institutional trip to Vrindavan, India, and was brutally beaten for not washing heavy blankets. 'The child was removed from the facility in a state of severe trauma and physical deterioration,' one of the relatives confirmed. Moreover, the documents obtained by THT revealed that another investigation is underway concerning long-term child sexual abuse of their daughter at the same facility. As per the complaint, the main accused, 19-year-old Ishwar Shrestha, used his position in the Gurukul to repeatedly assault the victim between August 2021 and September 2022. The detailed formal complaint said the victim was given a 'bad touch' inside the kitchen of the institution, pinned down and forcibly kissed inside the main temple hall and repeatedly violated on the rooftop of the building. The constant abuse caused serious behavioural degradation in the minor, who began to have unprovoked crying fits and deep depression. The girl eventually confessed the trauma to a teacher, who alerted the family. Following the teacher's information, the victim's family and relatives decided to pursue legal action. The victim's relatives told THT that the girl is traumatised as a result of abuse and is recovering from a severe psychological impact. 'I do not know whether my child is going to recover from this,' one of the parents said. The accused Ishwar Shrestha has since gone underground and is believed to be hiding in the ISKCON temple chain in Mathura, India, sources said. The case files also show a concerted effort by the leadership of ISKCON Nepal to 'cover up' the crimes. A total of 13 high-profile individuals - including ISKCON Budhanilkantha President Sabin Regmi and operators Suraj Krishna Shrestha and Devina Shakha - have been formally named as co-conspirators in a plot to bury the allegations. The institutional resistance escalated into outright lawlessness on April 22, 2026 (2083/01/09 BS). An independent internal body, the ISKCON Child Protection Oversight Committee, came to Kathmandu to investigate. A hostile mob of 30 to 34 people, led directly by Suraj Krishna Shrestha and Devina Shakha, raided the flat of the investigators at the Buigal Bagan Apartments. The mob beat up the investigation team and threatened to kill them. They forcibly deleted electronic evidence from their laptops and mobile phones. The principal of the Gurukul surrendered himself and, in police interrogation, initially admitted to crimes, but the victims' families have expressed deep alarm over a massive institutional cover-up. The offenders have massive financial resources and high-level influence, and they have hired a team of defence lawyers who are actively manipulating the case, as per victim relatives. 'In a bizarre legal manoeuvre, defence counsel falsely claimed in court that the Gurukul had shut down four to five years ago, completely ignoring concrete evidence that the school is still operational,' the victims' relatives told THT.