Actor Paul Shah has been acquitted of rape charge but has been sentenced for two and a half years for child sexual abuse.
A single bench of Judge Yagya Prasad Acharya of the Nawalpur District Court has acquitted Shah of rape but has sentenced him for two and a half years and asked him to pay reparation of Rs 1 million to the victim, according to Registrar with the court Mahendra Prasad Paudyal.
Another case of raping the minor is still sub judice at the Tanahau Dsitrict Court despite Shah getting acquittal from the Nawalpur District Court.
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 minor's family had lodged the rape complaints alleging that Shah raped her in Pokhara, Tanahu and Nawalpur.
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.
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.
The minor then had turned hostile and claimed in her statement to the Tanahu District that Shah did not rape her.
