The minor who accused actor Paul Shah of rape has turned hostile.
The minor in her statement to the Tanahu District on Sunday has claimed that Shah, who is currently in custody, did not rape her. "She had said he raped her when going with us. She only said no when recording statement in the court," District Attorney Ram Chandra Sharma told Setopati. "All the evidence is in the file we have submitted."
The minor's family had lodged the rape complaint alleging that Shah raped her in Pokhara, Tanau and Nawalpur.
A rape complaint was filed against Shah by the 17-year-old singer with the District Police Office, Tanahu on February 23. He surrendered before the Tanahu Police four days later. The family had also lodged another complaint with the Nawalpur Police on February 27.
The Tanahu District Court then sent Shah to judicial custody on March 24 after he conceded that he had reached her room in the midnight after getting drunk despite denying that he raped her.
Her change of statement now has raised suspicions that she may have turned hostile under pressure.
Shah was accused by the singer, who is a minor and cannot legally give consent for sex, of having sex with her promising to marry her in the future.
The singer had reached the Kaski Police complaining that Shah sexually abused her a month before that. Shah seems to have tried to reach a settlement after the Kaski Police refused to register the complaint citing lack of jurisdiction and advised the girl to go to the Tanahu Police instead as the alleged incident happened in Tanahu.
Audio of the conversation between the two in the intervening period has already been transmitted on the social media where actor Shah has accepted that he had sex with her.
