NEW DELHI, August 27, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Christians’ confidence in the judiciary in Nepal was shattered after a court sentenced a 63-year-old pastor to 10 years in prison on rape accusations the complainant later renounced, church leaders said.
Pastor Govinda Prasad Dhakal, 63, was sentenced on June 7 upon conviction for “frequently raping a minor” he and his wife had adopted in 2016. Christian leaders and his family roundly refute the allegation, citing an attempt by the alleged victim’s family to extort money from him with a false accusation.
“We are not happy to see the verdict, because everything was pre-decided,” Tanka Subedi, chair of the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal (RLFN), told Morning Star News.
The complainant, the now-12-year-old girl’s mother, confessed before the court that she had fabricated the rape story in a fit of anger over the pastor’s unwillingness to pay the girl’s school fees after he returned the child to her custody, a source present in the courtroom said. Authorities arrested Pastor Dhakal on Dec. 12, 2017, based on the mother’s initial statement.
Prabhushanta Dhakal, Pastor Dhakal’s younger son, was a witness to the courtroom proceedings. He said the mother expressed remorse, saying she never thought the pastor would end up in jail.
“The girl’s mother in the court confessed, ‘I was…
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