Nepal cricket captain Sandeep Lamichhane denied raped a 17-year-old girl and said he would return home to fight his case.
A Nepali court has issued an arrest warrant for the 22-year-old, who is currently playing in the Caribbean Premier League, and he has been suspended from his position of leadership.
The teenage girl and her guardian filed a complaint against the player earlier this week, alleging that he raped her last month in a hotel room in Kathmandu after they met and went out.
Lamichhane wrote on his social media channels, “I am INNOCENT & have complete faith in Nepal’s respectable laws.”
“I’ve decided to leave CPL and return to my home country in a few days.”
“I am prepared to face all of these baseless accusations; may justice be served to the innocent and the righteous.”
Lamichhane is currently playing for the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League, which is taking place throughout the West Indies.
Lamichhane is a poster child for Nepal’s rise in cricket, which gained one-day international status in 2018 but is still a long way from competing in a World Cup.
The leg-spinner got his big break in 2018 when he was signed by the Delhi Capitals for the lucrative Indian Premier League, and he has since become the most sought-after Nepali cricket player in international T20 leagues.
The allegations against him follow the conviction this week of popular Nepali actor Paul Shah for sexual misconduct with a minor.
He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to compensate his victim.
According to police, approximately 2300 rape cases were reported in Nepal in the previous fiscal year, but rights activists claim that many more assaults go unreported.
Only a few women in Nepal spoke out during the #MeToo movement, and the accused have faced little or no consequences as a result of the allegations.
After an aspiring model posted a series of TikTok videos detailing abuse as a teenager, hundreds protested in Kathmandu in May for tougher laws and enforcement in cases of sexual violence.
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