Promoter of Model Global Visas Consultancy Manoj Pandey, who has been accused of drugging and raping a minor eight years ago, has been arrested.
He has been arrested Saturday afternoon from Kathmandu, according to a police source. The Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office was monitoring him since Saturday morning.
The ministry has already formed a probe committee led by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basanta Kunwar and also including Superintendent of Police (SP) Krishna Koirala, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kopila Chudal and Hari Basnet, and Inspector Sapana Khadka to investigate the case.
A woman recently revealed through videos on the social media that she was raped in course of Miss Global International 2014, a beauty pageant, while she was 16.
Neapli Congress (NC) lawmaker Gagan Thapa raised the issue in the House on Friday and demanded that the statute of limitations in the Criminal Code be reviewed.
The statute of limitations requires that a rape case be filed within a year of offense if the victim is an adult, and within a year of the victim completing 18 years if the victim is a minor. The victim in the case is currently 24.
Speaker Agni Sapkota then referred to Thapa’s speech and stated that his attention had been seriously drawn to the issue and instructed the government to investigate the case and punish the perpetrators.
The victim claimed that promoter of Model Global Visas Consultancy Manoj Pandey spiked her drinks during a program at a hotel eight years ago. She added that Pandey threatened her the next morning saying he had nude photos and video of her taken during the night when she was inebriated and would publish them if she lodged a complaint.
She revealed that Pandey continued to blackmail and rape her for six months. Pandey, allegedly, also brought his friends and made them rape her in front of him during the period.
She stated in the revelations that she took some friends of hers to Pandey’s consultancy after six months and told every staffer there about his misdeeds producing the call records and texts he had sent to her during the intervening period.
