Nepal cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane jailed for 8 years after being convicted of rape
Kathmandu: Nepal spinner Sandeep Lamichhane has been sentenced to eight years in jail by a Kathmandu court after being convicted of rape.
According to Kathmandu Post, the Kathmandu District Court announced the verdict on Wednesday after he was proven guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl.
A single-judge bench also imposed a Rs 3,00,000 fine on the 23-year-old, besides ordering him to pay a compensation of Rs 2,00,000 to the victim.
Lamichhane's lawyer Saroj Ghimire was quoted as saying that he "will appeal the decision in a higher court".
In September last year, an arrest warrant was issued by the Kathmandu police for Lamichhane, leading to his suspension as the Nepal captain by the Cricket Association of Nepal.
Although he was playing in the Caribbean Premier League for Jamaica Tallawahs, the franchise released him with immediate effect, as he returned to Kathmandu, where he was arrested.
However, Lamichhane pleaded innocent before his arrest and wrote on Facebook that he would "fully cooperate in all stages of the investigation and will fight a legal battle to prove my innocence", besides calling it "conspiracy and wrongful allegation".
Although he was reconsidered for Nepal during the Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series at home last February, he was dropped for the World Cup League 2 tri-series in Dubai later last year before rejoining the side as an injury replacement.
Lamichhane has since played for Nepal in the ODI World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe last June-July, followed by the Asia Cup in August-September.
He has scalped over 100 wickets in over 100 white-ball matches for Nepal. He has also had a brief stint in the Indian Premier League with Delhi Capitals between 2018-20, bagging 13 wickets in nine fixtures.
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Rahul on compromised mission, has links with pro-Pak elements: Nitin Nabin
Patna (PTI): BJP president Nitin Nabin on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of undertaking foreign visits without informing central security agencies, and having close links with “anti-India and pro-Pakistan” elements.
Nabin charged Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition, with being on a “compromised mission” that began with his great grandfather and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and “continued through generations”.
The BJP president’s comments come amid a row over the Indian Youth Congress activists staging a shirtless protest at the AI Summit in Delhi last week, with the slogan “PM is compromised”, an allusion to the proposed trade deal with the US allegedly under pressure from the Donald Trump administration
“Today, I wish to expose the compromised mission of the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has traded national interests for personal gains. I wish to expose Rahul Gandhi, who is trutting about like a babbar sher (lion),” the 45-year-old Bihar MLA, who was made the BJP president a month ago, told reporters.
Nabin raked up Nehru’s alleged reference to the country’s burgeoning population as a “liability” and the defeat in the 1962 war with China, and charged Indira Gandhi with “giving up Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, after defeating Pakistan in 1971” as examples of the “compromised mission”.
He also alleged that Rajiv Gandhi, the father of Rahul and a former Prime Minister, had made use of the Bofors gun deal to “fatten up his personal bank balance”.
“The compromised mission continued under Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, who functioned as a ‘super prime minister’ from 2004 to 2014, compromising the authority of the top constitutional post,” the BJP president asserted.
Nabin slammed Rahul Gandhi for “undertaking 247 foreign visits, without informing security agencies back home”.
“All this has been a part of Rahul Gandhi’s compromised mission,” said Nabin who also accused the Rae Bareli MP of having close links with “anti-India, pro-Pakistan and China” elements abroad, including billionaire George Soros, US Congress member Ilhan Omar and Kenyan financier Shakir Merali.
“Rahul Gandhi is a poster boy of negative politics. But the people of the country, especially the youth, have seen through his game and they will not be misled by his rhetoric,” Nabin added.
