The Kathmandu District Court has granted permission to police to keep cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane in custody for five more days for investigation.
Police had produced Lamichhane before the court on Thursday seeking an extension to his custody. According to Senior Superintendent of Police Bharat Bohara at District Police Range, Kathmandu, the court has granted permission to keep Lamichhane in custody for five more days to investigate the allegation against him.
The court had earlier remanded him to custody for seven days starting from October 6, the day he was arrested upon landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. He has remained in police custody since then.
The Gaushala Police Circle is investigating Lamichhane for the alleged rape of a minor.
Lamichhane, who is the former captain of the Nepal cricket team, has been accused of raping a minor multiple times in a hotel room in Kathmandu on August 21.
A 17-year-old girl filed a rape complaint against Lamichhane at the Gaushala Police Circle on September 6. Police also conducted a health check-up of the girl the same day after receiving the complaint.
The girl has complained that Lamichhane took her out to different places of Bhaktapur and Kathmandu on August 21, a day before Lamichhane left for the bilateral series with Kenya.
She has accused Lamichhane of raping her multiple times in room number 305 of a hotel in Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward Number 9 that night.
The girl has claimed in her complaint that she had gone to Nagarkot with Lamichhane on August 17 after being introduced to him through a friend.
Lamichhane left to play in the Carribbean Premier League on August 22 after leading the team to a 3-2 victory in the five-match Twenty20 series against Kenya. Rohit Kumar Paudel then led the Nepali team in the one-dayers in his absence.
An arrest warrant was issued against Lamichhane on September 8 and the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) suspended him from the national team the same day after issuance of the arrest warrant.
Nepal Police later also issued a diffusion notice against him through Interpol on September 26.
Section 219 (2) of the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017 states: “Where a man has sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent or with a girl child below eighteen years of age even with her consent, the man shall be considered to commit rape on such woman or girl child.”
