The Pokhara High Court has cleared actor Paul Shah of the rape charge.
Chief advocate Kamal Mohan Wagle, Shah’s lawyer, told Setopati that Shah will be released from Tanahun District Jail on Monday following his acquittal on Sunday.
After a hearing on appeals filed by the District Attorney’s Office and Shah against the Nawalpur District Court’s order in the minor rape case, the High Court acquitted Shah citing insufficient evidence to prove the charge.
A single court of Nawalpur District Court Judge Yagya Prasad Acharya acquitted Shah of the rape charge on 6 September 2022, but sentenced him to two and a half years in prison and fined him Rs 25,000 for child sexual abuse. and also ordered him to pay 1 rupee. million in compensation to the victim.
The District Prosecutor’s Office and Shah had appealed the decision to the Pokhara High Court.
The Tanahun District Court also acquitted Shah of the rape charge on January 17.
A single court judge Komal Prasad Acharya had cleared Shah of the rape charge stating that the allegation could not be proven.
On February 23, 2022, a 17-year-old singer filed a rape complaint against Shah with the Tanahun District Police Office. He turned himself in to the Tanahun Police four days later. The family had also filed another complaint with the Nawalpur police on 27 February. The girl’s family had filed the rape complaints alleging that Shah raped her in Pokhara, Tanahun and Nawalpur.
Shah was accused by the singer, who is underage and legally unable to consent to sex, of having sex with her by promising to marry her in the future.
The singer had contacted the Kaski police complaining that Shah had sexually abused her a month earlier. Shah appears to have tried to reach an agreement after the Kaski police refused to register the complaint citing lack of jurisdiction and advised the girl to go to the Tanahun police as the alleged incident occurred in Tanahun.
The Tanahun District Court later sent Shah into court custody on March 24 after he admitted that he had come to her room at midnight after getting drunk despite denying that he raped her.
The girl then became hostile and stated in her statement to the Tanahun District Court that Shah did not rape her.
