Sandeep Lamichhane “innocent” till proven guilty, says his lawyer

BIPIN DANI

Sandeep Lamichhane is becoming the first Nepalese cricketer who will be spending at least the three nights in police custody. The 22-year-old legbreak googly bowler, who has been facing the rape allegations by a 17-year-old minor-girl was arrested immediartely after he landed from the Qatar Airways flight at the Tribhuvan Internationbal Airport in Kathmandu on Thursday at around 10 in the morning.

Sandeep surrendered himself and was handcuffed from the airport to the police station, though he had requested not to be hand-cuffed.

“He has been sent to the Gaushala Jail, which is near to Nepal’s most sacred Hindu Temple, Pashupatinath”, one of the cricket sources in Nepal revealed. “He will remain in police custody until he is produced before the court on Sunday. We have Dussehra holidays till Friday and the court is closed on Saturday. We will come to know only on Sunday whether the court extends the police custody or grants bail. He is under trial now”, the source further added.

Shortly before his arrest Sandeep Lamichhane had promised on social media that he would fully cooperate in the investigation.

He has hired the services of a prominent lawyer Saroj Ghimire, who is known to be a Lawyer for justice and committed to break all forms of conspiracy and plot and maintain high profession.

Speaking exclusively, he said, “our court will hear the case on Sunday. The case has not reached a bail stage. The person is innocent till proven guilty”. There was no anticipatory bail applied, confirmed the lawyer. “No anticipatory bail was applied and in this country the anticipatory bail on these types of allegations is not granted”.

“Our primary concern was why Sandeep was hand-cuffed. He is not an individual but a player of an institution (Cricket Association of Nepal). He had himself surrendered and there were a number of police officials escorting him”, the lawyer, who met Sandeep for about 10 minutes before being detained, added.

Sandeep can be detained in this police custody maximum for a period of ten-days and then police has to apply for additional detention everytime till the investigation is not over.

At this stage no compromise formula is thought of. The girl who has alleged to have been raped by the player was bering counselled at the NGO, it is also learnt. She was believed to be the player’s friend for sometime.