KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 4
Kathmandu District Court today sent suspended captain of the national cricket team Sandeep Lamichhane to judicial custody until final decision on charge of raping a minor girl.
A single bench of judge Madhav Prasad Ghimire passed the order stating that the court could not conclude on the basis of prima facie evidences that Lamichhane was innocent.
Lamichhane was taken to the central jail after the court's order. He had been in police custody since October 6 when he was arrested from Tribhuvan International Airport.
The court went through several evidences, including CCTV footage of Kathmandu Inn, the hotel where Lamichhane went with the victim on the same night she had said she was raped, medical report of the victim, statement of hotel's employees that the victim's allegations, messages exchanged by both on Snapchat, and documents police retrieved from the hotel.
Lamichhane has the right to move a higher court against today's order.
The court has scheduled the next hearing of the case for November 23. The plaintiff, government authorities, will have to produce the victim's brother who filed the FIR against Lamichhane, the victim, and the medical officer who prepared the victim's report.
The defendant, on the other hand, is required to produce the original copy of the victim's birth registration.
The defendant has claimed that the accuser was File photo: THT not a minor but a 19-yearold girl as per her birth registration.
However, the citizenship certificate of the victim in the FIR shows that she is 17 years old. The defendant had argued that there was no proof that Lamichhane had raped the girl.
On September 6, the victim, along with her elder brother had filed a complaint against Lamichhane at Gaushala Police Circle.
She has accused him of raping her in a hotel room in Sinamangal, Kathmandu, on the night of August 2. She had alleged that she was raped twice and beaten up when she protested.
The CCTV footage showed both leaving the hotel early morning the next day. Lamichhane left for Kenya to participate in the Cricket T-20 series in Nairobi the same day. Later, he travelled to the West Indies to participate in the Caribbean Premier League. When the rape allegation was levelled against Lamichhane, he was captain of the national cricket team.
Later, the Cricket Association of Nepal suspended him from the national squad following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 5, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
