POKHARA: The Pokhara High Court on Monday has struck out Kaski District Court's verdict and convicted a school teacher for 9 years in prison and Rs 75,000 fine for raping a minor girl.

The victim's family had accused that Laxman Khawas digitally penetrated the girl often in the pretext of teaching her math skills.

A division bench of justices Achyut Bista and Balachanda Sharma had announced the verdict today.

Earlier, after the incident, Khawas took advantage of the victim's humble background and tempted them to sign an agreement in return of financial gain not to disclose the case in public.

With this consent, the District Court had given a clean chit to Laxman Khawas on the basis of the document signed by them, before the victim's family had filed an FIR at the Kaski District Police Office.

However, the victim's family have accused the court of ignoring the medical test report, police investigation record, victim's statement and other evidences while pronouncing the decision last year.

The District Police Office had filed a rape case against Khawas at the District Court after the victim's family had filed an FIR in 2014. By then, the victim was a 14-year-old girl, an eight grader at a local school in Armala in the district, according to police.

The lawyers Ram Prasad Adhikari, Shova Paudel Parajuli and Durga Bhandari advocated for the victim while lawyer Narayan Prasad Sharma defended Khawas.