Police have arrested Amrit Kumar Ghale, economic advisor to State Minister for Urban Development Ram Bir Manandhar, on the charges of abduction and rape of a 17-year-old girl. 

Ghale was arrested on February 13 following a complaint filed by the girl’s relatives. The girl’s relatives had filed a complaint at the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range on February 10, suspecting that she might have been abducted. 

“Acting on the complaint, we initiated our investigation and traced her location in Ghale’s flat in Tokha. She had been abducted, held captive and raped,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Hobindra Bogati, spokesperson for Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range, told the Post on Wednesday. 

The police investigation has revealed that Ghale, 52, abducted the teenager on the pretext of offering her a lift. He then took the girl to his Tokha flat, where she was held captive for several days and raped multiple times. 

“The girl had managed to call one of her relatives on the phone three days after she was abducted,” Bogati said. “We tracked down her location using the call location.”

Ghale, whose family are in the US, had rented the flat in Tokha where he lived alone. He had tried to buy the silence of the girl by promising to take her to the US, police investigation shows.

Ghale has been arraigned on abduction and rape charges. He is currently in police custody pending further investigation. 

A police officer told the Post that Ghale had tried to avoid arrest and investigation by abusing his political position. 

“He tried to claim immunity from prosecution saying that he was the advisor of State Minister Manandhar,” said the officer.