Warden of Sarbanam Sikshyalaya sent to judicial custody

Kathmandu, July 17: Ramji Basnet, the hostel warden of Sarbanam Sikshyalaya located at Gokarneshwor Municipality – 6, Jorpati, has been sent to jail on the charge of sexual misconduct. The Kathmandu District Court sent him to judicial custody for prosecution on Thursday.   

A single bench of Judge Kedar Prashad Paudel of the district court issued an interim order sending him to jail, saying “such behavior is not expected of a teacher who is also a guardian”. Police took him to Dillibazar jail on Thursday.

Basnet, 35, of Ramechhap Gokulganga Rural Municipality-2, was accused of sexually abusing female students living in the hostel of his own school. Accusing Basnet of sexually abusing them, three students from grades 7, 8 and 10 aged 11, 12 and 14, respectively, had filed a compaint with the police on June 5.

On the same day, before the complaint was filed, the parents of the victim students had surrounded the school Sarbanam Sikshyalaya and shouted slogans. According to the victim students, warden Basnet had been sexually abusing as many as eight girl students living in the hostel for the past 6 -7 months.   

However, only three students approached the police seeking justice and filed an FIR. According to the students, Warden Basnet used to ask them their weight, and when they would answer him, he would lift them and hug them saying, “That’s not right. Let me check for myself.” The students said that Basnet would touch their sensitive organs when he would find them alone, forcefully put them on his lap, and put pronographic films into their phones. Similarly, they have said the same in their statements to the court. But Basnet has denied the allegations.

The district public prosecutor’s office, Kathmandu, has registered a case against Basnet at the District Court, kathmandu, accusing him of child sexual abuse. Advocate Binodmani Bhattrai and Laban Neupane have argued on behalf of the victim students in a closed hearing. Section 225(3) of the National Criminal Code, 2074, has mentioned three years of imprisonment and Rs 30,000 cash fine for such crimes.