The Kathmandu District Court has sent Manoj Pandey, the promoter of Model Global Visas Consultancy, to judicial custody.
A bench of Justice Prakash Dhungana ordered Pandey to be sent to judicial custody in the human trafficking and transportation case on Monday, said Information Officer Deepak Dahal.
Similarly, the court has sought a deposit of Rs 100,000 against Pandey in the child sex abuse case, Dahal added.
He has been sent to Dillibazar prison after the court’s order.
The District Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu had registered two cases -- human trafficking and transportation, and child sex abuse -- against Pandey at the Kathmandu District Court last Wednesday.
The District Attorney’s Office had sought a jail term of 10 to 15 years against Pandey in the human trafficking case and of up to three years in the child sex abuse case.
Pandey has been accused of drugging and raping a minor in the course of a beauty pageant eight years ago.
A woman recently revealed through videos on social media that she was raped in the course of Miss Global International 2014, a beauty pageant, when she was 16.
The victim claimed that 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.
