Women’s Commission demands action against culprit in minor rape case

Coming under pressure from different sections of the society and continuous protests police on Saturday put into custody Manoj Pandey, who has been accused of raping a former beauty pageant participant who aspired to be a model.

Social activists staged a protest in front of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s residence on Friday over the eight year old rape cases involving Nepal and demanded justice for the victims of the crimes.

Dozens of people gathered to demonstrate after a video went viral on social media in which a girl who participated in a beauty pageant in 2014 relieved her harrowing experience of being raped multiple times by the pageant organiser

Demonstrators were chanting slogans and demanding an extension of the statute of limitation and the existing penalties in cases of sexual abuse against women.

The incident came to light after a woman aged 24 years uploaded a series of videos on social media in which she alleged that the organiser of the beauty pageant that she had participated in when she was 16 year-old had drugged and raped her and also blackmailed her.

Meanwhile, the National Women Commission has demanded justice for the victim of rape incident that occurred eight years ago and has sought action against the culprit.

Issuing a statement on Monday, the Commission made the request to the concerned authority after a contestant of a beauty pageant made public the incident of rape and sexual abuse against her by the pageant organiser. The statement read, “The security agency has already arrested the alleged rapist.

“The NWC would like to draw attention to the need of impartial investigation into the incident to ensure justice to the victim and action against the perpetrator as per the prevailing law,” reads the statement.

Furthermore, the constitutional body has also demanded health care and security arrangement for rape survivors. The Commission said it had adopted zero-tolerance policy against the heinous crime of rape.

A probe committee has been formed by the government to look into the case.

The Commission has informed that it had been coordinating efforts with the victim, government and security agencies and called for cooperation from all sides to ensure fair investigation into the case.