The Kathmandu District Court has sentenced Manoj Pandey, the promoter of Model Global Visas Consultancy, to seven years in prison in a human trafficking case.
A bench of Judge Deepak Dhakal on Monday sentenced Pandey to seven years in prison and ordered him to pay Rs 75,000 in compensation to the victim, according to Deepak Dahal, information officer at the district court.
Earlier, on January 24, the district court had found Pandey guilty of child sexual abuse and human trafficking. The bench of Judge Deepak Dhakal had found Pandey guilty and sentenced him to six months and ordered him to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 to the victim for child sex abuse.
The court had called another hearing for Monday to announce the quantum of punishment in the human trafficking charge. The court generally holds another hearing for quantum of punishment in cases with jail terms of more than three years.
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 sexual abuse case.
Pandey has been accused of drugging and raping a minor in the course of a beauty pageant eight years ago. He was arrested on May 21, 2022 and was sent to judicial custody on June 20.
A woman last year 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.
