Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday convicted beauty pageant organiser Manoj Pandey of child sexual abuse and human trafficking.
A single bench of Judge Deepak Dhakal sentenced Pandey to six months in jail, slapped a fine of Rs5,000 and ordered him to pay Rs50,000 in compensation to the victim in the child sexual abuse case, Deepak Dahal, information officer of the court, told the Post.
The court also convicted Pandey of human trafficking and will determine the jail term during the next hearing scheduled for February 6.
The District Attorney’s Office in Kathmandu on June 15 last year had filed two separate cases against Pandey demanding a jail term of 18 years for human trafficking and child sexual abuse.
Police had arrested Pandey, the owner of Model Global Visas Consultancy, after a woman shared harrowing experiences of being allegedly raped by Pandey some eight years ago on social media. She was 16 then.
In the videos, she had shared how Pandey, who was the organiser of a pageant called Miss Global International 2014, had allegedly drugged and raped her in a hotel room. In the clips, the victim had also claimed that she was abused by Pandey for six months during which he invited one of his friends as well and they allegedly abused her sexually.
Although it seemed like a rape case in the beginning, due to the statute of limitations, the case was instead filed under Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act 2007. In Nepal, the statute of limitations is not applicable in human trafficking-related cases.
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