The Kathmandu District Court has sent Rajesh Jha, the former province chief of Madhes who is also known as Ahiraj, to judicial custody in the rape case filed against him.
On Wednesday, a bench of Judge Pitambar Sharma ordered Ahiraj to be remanded to judicial custody for investigation in the rape case, according to Superintendent of Police Apil Raj Bohara at the District Police Range, Kathmandu.
The District Government Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu, filed a rape case against Ahiraj in the court on Tuesday.
Ahiraj was arrested in Kathmandu on July 20.
He is accused of raping a young woman staying in a hostel in Baneshwar of Kathmandu.
A complaint against Ahiraj was registered at the District Police Range, Kathmandu, on January 16. However, despite registering the complaint, the police did not seek permission from the court to arrest him at the time.
According to court sources, the police obtained an arrest warrant for Ahiraj from the Kathmandu District Court only on April 7.
Ahiraj went into hiding after learning about the issuance of the arrest warrant.
According to sources, the incident occurred on May 17, 2024.
Ahiraj is accused of repeatedly raping the victim that day when no one else was present in his room. The victim has alleged that even after the incident, Ahiraj threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.
Some time after the rape, the victim reached the District Police Range, Kathmandu.
However, the victim claims that although she tried to register the case, the police refused to accept it.
After repeated attempts to file the complaint were denied, the young woman approached the District Government Attorney's Office, Kathmandu.
She filed a complaint at the District Government Attorney's Office on November 13.
The District Government Attorney's Office wrote to the District Police Range on November 15 to register the complaint.
But it was only two months later, in January this year, that the police finally registered the complaint and moved the process forward.
Ahiraj served as the province chief of Madhes from February 19, 2021, to August 16, 2021.
Ahiraj had also filed a counter-complaint against the victim, accusing her of extortion.
A case against the woman was also filed in the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday.
In his complaint, Ahiraj claimed that the woman occasionally demanded money from him. He said that the woman gave her bank account number on September 3, 2024, and asked him to send money.
He further alleged that she later demanded cash, and that he went to her hostel with Rs 300,000 of the Rs 2 million she had demanded.
The victim, however, said in her statement to the government attorney that the money was hers.
