Former Bal Mandir officials convicted of raping three autistic minors
Republica
Kamal Pariyar
KATHMANDU, Dec 3: The Kathmandu District Court on Monday convicted two former employees of Bal Mandir on the charge of repeatedly raping three autistic minor girls.
According to the Kathmandu District Court Registrar Shree Prasad Sanjel, a single bench of Justice Pashupati Acharya issued the verdict sentencing the two to sixteen and a half years in jail along with a fine of Rs 100,000 each.
The two convicted are — Rabin Chalise, 29, chairman of a club of former NCO students and Rabin Shrestha, 43, former employee who headed the adoption department. “The two have been sentenced to sixteen and a half years in jail,” Registrar Sanjel said.
The two convicted had easy access to Bal Mandir, which is also known as Nepal Children´s Organization (NCO), one of the country´s oldest orphanages in the country.
The girls aged 13, 14 and 15 years had complained of being raped on June 14 this year. Following the complaints, the girls were rescued by child rights activists on June 17 from Bal Mandir with the help of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). The two were arrested on June 20, 2014.
“The charge against them has finally been proven and we hope it would be a good lesson to other orphanages in the country,” Rama Shrestha, a lawyer, who fought the case for the victims, said.
Earlier, CIB under the leadership of DSP Kiran Bajracharya had found that the three minor girls were sexually exploited.
The minors were later shifted to CIWIN, in coordination with the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), from the Bal Mandir after an NGO, Action for Child Rights International (ACRI), made a complaint to the police.
ACRI Country Director Salina Tamang expressed happiness over the court´s verdict.
Published on 2014-12-02
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=87830
For more on Rabin Shrestha & Rabin Chalise, see Pound Pup Legacy:
Nepal Children’s Organization (NCO/Bal Mandir) — child trafficking, corruption and sexual abuse
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/73445
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/