Lagatar24 Desk
Kathmandu, Oct 10: The Nepali cricketer and former captain Sandeep Lamichhane is accused of rape, and the Kathmandu District Court on Monday ordered police custody remand for seven days to further investigate.
Lamichhane was introduced before the court on Monday. The cricket star was detained last week. At a young age, he was also the captain of the national cricket team. On October 6, the Nepal Police detained him upon his arrival at Tribhuwan International Airport.
A 17-year-old girl filed a lawsuit, stating that Lamichhane had taken her all day on August 21 to several locations in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur before bringing her to a hotel in Sinamangal, where she had been raped the previous evening.
Lamichhane was suspended from his position and a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Kathmandu District Court shortly after the allegations were filed. The prominent cricketer was playing in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) for the Jamaica Tallawahs as the incident was taking place back in Nepal.
On September 7, the District Court issued an arrest order for him, notwithstanding the complainant’s claims that the incident actually happened on the night of August 21 in Kathmandu.
Lamichhane stayed anonymous for more than a month, updating his messages on social media to maintain his innocence. Lamichhane was taken into custody on Thursday, October 6, the eleventh day of Dashain, and as it would be his fourth day in custody, the Police would now have a total of 21 days to look into the situation.
Lamichhane returned to Kathmandu via Doha, where the Police examined him medically and detained him. The Police will undoubtedly run out of time to look into the matter and present a better case with the government offices reopening on Sunday and the countdown Dashain holidays coming to an end.
