Nepal cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane has been sentenced to eight years of prison after being proven guilty of rape. A single bench of Judge Shishir Raj Dhakal passed the order to the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old also has been slapped with a fine of Rs 300,000(INR 1,87,148) and is ordered to pay Rs 200,000(INR 1,24,765) to the victim’s family said Chandra Prasad Panthi, information officer at the court according to The Kathmandu Post.
The cricketer, who was arrested after a girl alleged that he raped her in a hotel room in Kathmandu in August last year, was released on bail in January by a Nepal court.
A joint bench of the Patan High Court judges Dhruvaraj Nanda and Ramesh Dhakal decided to release Lamichhane on bail of Rs 2 million, reversing the decision of the Kathmandu district court. The 23-year-old was also barred from leaving the country until the final verdict of the court in the case.
In February, the Scotland cricket team players had refused to shake Lamichhane’s hands after their 3-wicket loss to Nepal.
The Scottish players shook hands with every Nepal player, except Lamichhane as part of a silent protest to the spinner’s continued presence and participation in the ICC’s Cricket World Cup League 2 series which also includes Namibia. Lamichhane had been made aware of the protest beforehand.
Lamichhane was the first cricketer from Nepal to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he made his debut for the Delhi Capitals in 2018.
The leg-spinner was also a much sought-after cricketer in other big-ticket T20 leagues around the world, including the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the CPL.
He holds the record for the world’s second-fastest bowler to capture 50 ODI wickets and the third-fastest to race to 50 T20I wickets.
Lamichhane’s last international appearance came in August this year when he played against Kenya in a T20I encounter.
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