Police arrest five including local leaders and school teacher for settling rape against septuagenarian

Police have arrested five people, including the rape accused, local leaders and school teachers from outside the Kailali district court in charge of unlawfully settling the rape case with the victim's family.

Police arrested former ward secretary Yagya Raj Acharya (53), ward member Laxmi Neupane (54), local teacher Hom Prasad Subedi (53), Raju Bhattrai (34) and the rape accused Prakash Subedi (30) from Janakpur of Ghodaghodi Municipality-4 in the district.

Other few locals who were trying to force the settling of the rape, however were able to escape the police action.

Prakash had reportedly dragged a 77-year-old woman from the local Chaudhary community into an isolated field and raped her on December 1. After the assault, the locals and accused family had stopped the son from filing the case at the court. In exchange they had offered Rs 300,000 to the victim family in exchange of their silence. But, the issue surfaced after a month when the perpetrator refused to pay more than Rs 100,000.

After which the victim’s son had filed the case at the nearby Sukhad Area Police Office. Police arrested accused Prakash on the same day. However, the accused family and friends had again tried to influence the victim’s family and tried to 'settle the matter' outside of court. The police then arrested those mediators.
Nepal’s criminal rule does not allow rape case to be solved through consensus between the victim and perpetrator sides. Police have given authority to arrest the rape accused even when the agreement of silence has been made between the two parties.