Suspended cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, who is in judicial custody on the charge of raping a minor, has started receiving psychological counseling for his depression.
Senior psychologist Sushma Regmi visited the Central Jail at Sundhara in Kathmandu on Monday and provided psychological counseling to Lamichhane, according to Lamichhane’s lawyer Saroj Krishna Ghimire.
“I had felt a difference in his behavior over the past 15-20 days. So I took a senior psychologist along to the Central Jail. After counseling, she [Regmi] said that Lamichhane’s depression level had increased,” Ghimire told Setopati. “The situation is apparently worse than what we had thought. She has advised that Lamichhane needs regular counseling now.”
Ghimire said that Lamichhane was found to be suffering from problems including an increase in negative thoughts.
He said that they have sought the jailer’s permission for counseling but it is difficult to provide effective counseling as there is no separate room for counseling inside the prison.
“It is not only for Sandeep, others also need to be given counseling. It is necessary to arrange a separate room or place for counseling,” Ghimire said.
Lamichhane, who has been kept at the Central Jail Jagannath Dewal, has appealed against the Kathmandu District Court’s order on November 4 to send him to judicial custody until the case is decided.
The District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu had registered a case against Lamichhane charging him with raping a minor.
The District Police Range, Kathmandu and the Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala had submitted the investigation report at the DGAO on October 21 after completing their joint investigation against Lamichhane. However, a case could not be filed against him then due to the Tihar holidays.
The Kathmandu DGAO has demanded a prison sentence of up to 12 years against Lamichhane as per sub-section 3 (d) of Section 219, which states that a person who commits rape shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of 10 to 12 years if the woman is 16 or above 16 years of age but below 18 years of age. It has also sought compensation for the victim.
Police had investigated against Lamichhane under Section 219 of the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017 after a 17-year-old girl filed a rape complaint against him at the Gaushala Police Circle on September 6.
Lamichhane, who is the former captain of the Nepal cricket team, has been accused of raping the minor multiple times in a hotel room in Kathmandu on August 21.
The girl has alleged 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.
Lamichhane has denied the rape allegation in his statements to the DGAO and police. He has admitted to staying with the girl in the same room of a hotel in Kathmandu on August 21. But he has said that the girl had slept on the bed and he had slept on a chair that night.
Police have also collected CCTV footage of the night from the hotel. The footage shows that Lamichhane had stayed at the hotel for seven hours.
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.”
