The Supreme Court (SC) will hold the first hearing on Friday in the Office of Attorney General’s (OAG) appeal against the Patan High Court’s order to release accused rape cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane on bail of 2 crores.
The SC has informed the OAG that the first hearing on the registered application demanding that Lamichhane remain in court custody during the rape trial will take place on Friday, according to OAG spokesman Sanjeev Raj Regmi.
The joint hearing of Judges Dhruba Raj Nanda and Ramesh Dhakal on the appeal against the Kathmandu District Court’s order to remand Lamichhane to judicial custody in the case of rape of a minor on January 12 decided to revoke the Kathmandu District Court’s order. Kathmandu District citing lack of grounds to keep him in custody. He was released on bail of Rs 2 crore the next day.
The Attorney General’s Office has argued that the Patan High Court’s order to release Lamichhane on bail is contrary to the legal provisions and the SC’s interpretation during the bail hearing in cases of a similar nature.
Clause 27 of the National Criminal Procedure Law (Code) 2017 has a clear provision to detain the accused of any offense punishable by imprisonment for a period exceeding three years in detention if, based on the available evidence, the accused appears to be guilty of the crime crime or there is some reasonable ground, based on such evidence, to believe that person is guilty of the crime.
But Lamichhane was released on bail despite the fact that subsection 3(d) of Section 219 of the National Criminal Law (Code) 2017 states that a person who commits rape shall be subject to imprisonment for 10 to 12 years if the woman is older than 16 but younger than 18. The victim in the case is 17 years old.
The Patan High Court ordered Lamichhane’s release with five conditions. He will be sent back to prison if he is found to have violated those conditions.
The court has banned Lamichhane from traveling abroad. He must also get permission from the Kathmandu Range District Police to leave the Kathmandu Valley.
The court has also asked the police to monitor their activities.
Lamichhane will live in Kathmandu after his release. His father, Chandra Narayan, said they left Chitwan and have been living in Kathmandu since the case began.
Lamichhane’s lawyers had appealed against the Kathmandu District Court’s November 4 order to send him into judicial custody until the case is decided. Lamichhane had been held at Jagannath Dewal Central Jail.
Previously, the Patan High Court had requested documents from the hospital where the victim was born to determine his real age after Lamichhane’s defense claimed that he was not actually a minor.
The Kathmandu District Government Prosecutor’s Office (DGAO) had registered a case against Lamichhane accusing him of raping a minor.
District Police Range, Kathmandu and Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala had filed the investigation report with the DGAO on October 21 after completing their joint investigation against Lamichhane. However, a case could not be filed against him due to Tihar’s vacation.
Police had investigated Lamichhane under Section 219 of the National Criminal (Code) Act 2017 after a 17-year-old girl filed a rape complaint against him.
The Kathmandu DGAO has demanded a prison sentence of up to 12 years against Lamichhane under subsection 3(d) of Section 219, which states that a person who commits rape shall be subject to a prison sentence of 10 to 12 years if the woman is 16 years old or more than 16 years old but less than 18 years old. He has also requested compensation for the victim.
Lamichhane has denied the rape charge in his statements to the DGAO and the police. He has admitted staying with the girl in the same Kathmandu hotel room on August 21. But he has said that the girl had slept in the bed and he had slept in a chair that night.
Lamichhane, a former captain of the Nepal cricket team, has been accused of raping a minor multiple times in a Kathmandu hotel room on August 21.
A 17-year-old girl filed a rape complaint against Lamichhane at the Gaushala Police Circle on 6 September.
The girl has complained that Lamichhane took her to different places in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu on August 21, a day before Lamichhane left for the bilateral series with Kenya.
He accused Lamichhane of raping her multiple times in room number 305 of a hotel in the 9th district of the Kathmandu metropolitan city that night.
Police also collected CCTV footage of the night from the hotel. The footage shows that Lamichhane had stayed at the hotel for seven hours.
The girl has claimed in her complaint that she had gone to Nagarkot with Lamichhane on August 17 after being introduced to him by a friend.
Lamichhane left to play in the Caribbean Premier League on 22 August after leading the team to a 3–2 win in the five-game Twenty20 series against Kenya. Rohit Kumar Paudel then led the Nepali team in the one-days in his absence.
An arrest warrant was issued for Lamichhane on 8 September and he was suspended from the national team by the Nepal Cricket Association (CAN) the same day after the arrest warrant was issued.
Subsequently, the Nepal Police also issued a broadcast notice against him through Interpol on 26 September.
Section 219 (2) of the National Criminal Law (Code) 2017 states: “Where a man has sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent or with a girl under the age of eighteen even with her consent, the man shall be considered as committing a rape of such a woman or girl.”
