The Patan High Court has allowed cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane to appeal against the Kathmandu District Court’s verdict that sentenced him to eight years in prison for raping a girl staying out of the jail.
Registrar at the Patan High Court Man Bahadur Karki has confirmed that Lamichhane registered an appeal against the Kathmandu District Court’s verdict on Thursday, and the court allowed him to appeal remaining out of jail.
Karki has revealed that Lamichhane also demanded that he be allowed to appeal the verdict staying out of the jail citing Section 137 of the Criminal Procedure (Code) Act. “He has been granted the facility to appeal staying outside jail as he was sentenced for less than 10 years and was not sent to judicial custody (during hearing of the case by Kathmandu District Court),” Karki has added.
A bench of Kathmandu District Court Judge Shishir Dhakal on January 10 had announced a jail sentence of eight years for Lamichhane in the rape case. The court had also fined Lamichhane Rs 300,000 and ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs 200,000 to the victim.
Lamichhane has moved the Patan High Court against the verdict.
On December 29, 2022, Judge Dhakal’s bench had found Lamichhane guilty of raping a girl. Judge Dhakal ruled that Lamichhane had raped the girl taking advantage of her poor financial status.
But the court refused, on the basis of different documents, the claims that the girl was a minor at the time of rape.
A girl filed a rape complaint against Lamichhane at the Gaushala Police Circle on September 6, 2022.
The girl 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 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 claimed in her complaint that she had gone to Nagarkot with Lamichhane on August 17 after being introduced to him through a friend.
An arrest warrant was issued against Lamichhane on September 8 and the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) suspended him from the national team later the same day.
On September 26, Interpol issued a diffusion notice for Lamichhane on the request of Nepal Police after he did not return to Nepal from the West Indies. Lamichhane was arrested upon landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on October 6.
The Kathmandu District Court, holding the preliminary hearing on the case on November 4, remanded Lamichhane to custody for investigation.
Lamichhane appealed against the district court’s order at the Patan High Court. On January 2, 2023, the high court released him on a bail of Rs 2 million. The court said that Lamichhane was not allowed to travel abroad, was required to inform the police before leaving the Kathmandu Valley, and was not allowed to contact the victim directly or indirectly.
Lamichhane and the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) then moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order. Lamichhane filed a petition at the Supreme Court on February 24 demanding that he be allowed to travel abroad to play cricket, while the OAG filed a separate application demanding that Lamichhane be tried in custody.
Conducting a hearing on both applications on February 27, a joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Sapana Malla Pradhan and Kumar Chudal issued an order allowing Lamichhane to travel abroad stating that he was a national player.
The Kathmandu District Court had been collecting evidence related to the case until then. But the case started being scheduled for final hearing 10 months ago.
Most of the justices hearing the case protracted the case by only ordering documents related to the victim’s date of birth. On August 17, Justice Raju Kumar Khatiwada issued an order to ascertain the date of birth of the victim’s mother as well.
Some justices said that they could not hear the case even when they had time while some put off the case even after hearing the arguments. Some even asked the government attorney to postpone the case.
In the intervening period, the court accorded Lamichhane facilities not given to other accused. The court once did not schedule any hearing for two months after Lamichhane filed an application requesting the court to not schedule any hearing when he was abroad to play cricket. Hearings on such cases cannot be deferred by more than 15 days – when there is a death or tragedy – that would benefit the accused.
