Madan Rai, known as an agriculture expert, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for sexually abusing minor girls studying at the Shubhadra Madan (Shubham) Foundation founded by him.
A bench of Khotang District Court Judge Narayan Prasad Dahal at the Khotang District Court announced the prison sentence for Rai on Friday, the court’s staffer Sudip Kumar Bhattarai said.
The court also fined him Rs 100,000 and ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs 150,000 to the victim.
According to Bhattarai, the bench also ruled that Rai had committed a criminal offense that reflected moral turpitude.
Judge Dahal’s bench had found Rai guilty of child sexual abuse on January 23.
Setopati had first published a story on May 11, 2023, exposing Rai's long history of sexually abusing children staying at his foundation.
Girls at the foundation had told Setopati that the 75-year-old Rai would touch their private parts, solicit sexual intercourse, ask them to touch his private parts, flash them, and engage in other obscene acts.
Talking to Setopati, six of the girls had given detailed accounts of Rai’s sexual abuse.
The District Government Attorney’s Office, Khotang, had filed a case against Rai at the Khotang District Cout on June 4, 2023, accusing him of various offenses under Section 66 (3) of the Act Relating to Children, 2018.
It had charged Rai with offenses under Section 66 (3) (a), (c), and (e), and sought punishment according to Section 67, Section 72, and Section 75 (3) (b) of the Act.
