The Kathmandu District Court has extended police custody of promoter of Model Global Visas Consultancy Manoj Pandey, who has been arrested on charge of drugging and raping a minor eight years ago, by seven days.
The Kathmandu District Court on Monday has given permission to the police to keep Pandey in custody for another seven days to investigate the case of human trafficking filed against him, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) with Kathmandu Police Dinesh Raj Mainali.
The police did not charge Pandey with rape due to the statute of limitations that requires 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.
The court had earlier remanded him to five days of police custody last Monday.
A woman recently revealed through videos on social media that she was raped in course of Miss Global International 2014, a beauty pageant, while she was 16.
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.
