(Trigger warning: Description of sexual violence.)
"I have been in hiding ever since I filed a complaint against him. I have not been able to enjoy the little joys of life," a 20-year-old woman, who had accused Nepal cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane of raping her in September 2022, told The Quint.
On 10 January, the Kathmandu District Court sentenced Lamichhane to eight years in jail after he was convicted of raping the then 18-year-old woman (code-named Gaushala-26 by the court), following a 15-month-long judicial process.
The court noted that "the accused [Lamichhane] had raped the victim by taking advantage of her poor economic condition." Lamichhane's lawyer Saroj Ghimire, meanwhile, told the media that he "will appeal the decision in a higher court," adding, "Sandeep is not guilty. We are against the verdict."
Lamichhane has been an integral figure in Nepal cricket, so much so that the sport did not enjoy the adulation it does today before his entry in 2016. Over the years, the 23-year-old became the poster boy for the sport – and the spinner's on-field success boosted its popularity in the country. He is the only cricketer from Nepal to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), debuting for the Delhi Capitals in 2018.
His rise was meteoric, but his downfall was steeper.
'I Was Raped Twice by Sandeep Lamichhane'
"The first time I connected with Lamichhane was through Snapchat on 17 August 2022 – and we had been talking since then. We would mostly talk about our life. I used to share my hardships with him, and he empathised with me," the woman, who was in Class 12 then and lived in her college hostel, recalled to The Quint.
"He made several requests to meet in person, and on 21 August 2022, he finally convinced me. He told me he would be flying for the Caribbean Premier League the next day... and that there was the Big Bash League auction later. He told me if he was selected for the auction, he would be away for some time. He stressed that if we didn't meet that day, we wouldn't be able to meet at all," she added.
The rape survivor told The Quint she had a hard life growing up. She said that her parents had been separated and that her mother worked as a domestic worker to make ends meet. Before the alleged incident, she, too, had been working part-time at a local computer training centre as an instructor.
"I had heard he was arrogant and egoistic... But I couldn't resist the pull of meeting a 'star' and taking pictures with him and showing them to my friends. So, I decided to meet him."Rape survivor to The Quint
On the afternoon of 21 August 2022, she received a call from him from a "teammate's number," asking her to meet him in another part of Kathmandu. That evening, the cricketer allegedly picked her up in his car but did not disclose where he was taking her.
"He drove towards Nagarkot [about 32 km from Kathmandu]. I had never been there. We had left the main road and were on a narrow lane, where it was difficult to manoeuvre the car. When I think back on that day, he may have taken that route to cause delays," she added.
Once they reached a motel in Nagarkot, the victim alleged that Lamichhane tried to coerce her to drink alcohol and "try the hookah" that he had brought for himself. However, she refused.
Things took a turn for the worse when she insisted on returning to her hostel. "He got angry and started humiliating me. He said he had brought a person like me to a motel I could never afford," she added.
By the time they returned, the woman had missed her curfew at the hostel. Fearing reprimand from the hostel authorities, she chose to go to the hotel with him, on the condition that he would stay in a separate room, she told The Quint.
"We reached the hotel [in Tilganga], and I checked into the room. The AC in the room wasn't working, so he suggested I move into another room ... I told him I will stay in that room even if the AC was not working, and that he should go to the other room. He said he would leave after a while," she said.
"I soon began dozing off on a chair while he was sitting on the bed," she said. The next thing she remembered was Lamichhane pressing against her and forcing himself on her.
"He raped me twice that night. My hair was waist-long. He pulled my hair and made me do things I wasn't comfortable with. Unable to stop what was happening to me, I began to cry. He hit me badly, asking me to submit to him. A few days later, when the shock had started wearing off, the first thing I did was cut my hair."Rape survivor
She said Lamichanne threatened her to not talk about the incident to anyone.
'No One Thought About Me'
On 6 September 2022, she, along with her brother, filed a complaint against Lamichhane. But what followed next was a classic case of victim-blaming – with a barrage of questions directed at her (including why she agreed to go out with him, why she spent the night at a hotel, among others), according to The Kathmandu Post.
However, Lamichhane was suspended as Nepal's captain and arrested at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport exactly a month later – on 6 October 2022 – upon his return from the West Indies, where he was participating in the Caribbean Premier League, representing Jamaica Tallawahs.
He was eventually released on bail in January 2023 by a division bench of High Court judges. However, he was barred from travelling abroad without permission. During his time in jail, he had to pull out of the league in the West Indies because of the rape allegations.
"The biggest blow for me came the court decided to grant him bail... It was disturbing to watch that the day he came out of judicial custody, he was celebrated as a hero with garlands. I saw people sympathising with him and presenting him as the victim," the survivor said.
"No one thought about me. It begs the question of the kind of society we are living in."Rape survivor
Later, Lamichhane moved the Supreme Court of Nepal, challenging the restrictions imposed on his travel abroad to play cricket. The apex court ruled in his favour.
'A Victory For Women's Rights'
A single bench of judge Shishir Raj Dhakal, that had convicted the cricketer on 29 December, pronounced a jail term of eight years for him and a penalty of half a million Nepalese rupees to the survivor on 10 January.
Lamichhane’s lawyers demanded the lowest possible punishment in light of his contribution to Nepal through cricket. The victim’s lawyers, on the other hand, argued that he had misused his celebrity status, according to The Kathmandu Post. The court, however, had dismissed the survivor's claim that she was a minor at the time.
The conviction in such a high-profile case is being seen as a victory by women's rights activists.
"This is good news. She had been fighting a long fight. A decision like this should be an eye-opener to others. But we have to stay vigilant and ensure that he does not get away," women's rights activist Hima Bista told The Quint.
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