Off the Record 140: Sandeep Lamichhane & Gaushala-26
Issue 140 • 24 May 2024
It’s May 24, 2024, and you’re reading Off the Record.
I’m Pranaya Rana and in this newsletter, we’ll stop, take a deep breath, and dive into one singular issue that defined the past week.
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Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. First, apologies for going AWOL the last two weeks. As I said before I left, I had a personal matter to deal with. But now I’m back and what a two weeks it’s been. It feels like every time I take a break, there are more things than ever to talk about.
Before we begin, a quick shoutout to Bruce Moore from the American Himalayan Foundation and Avani Adhikari for becoming my newest paid members. Thank you so much for your support! Please share with your friends and anyone interested in reading about Nepal and supporting my work financially. It would mean a lot to me.
An arrest warrant for Kailash Sirohiya
On Tuesday evening, Kailash Sirohiya, chairman of Kantipur Media Group, was arrested by the Nepal Police. The Dhanusha District Court had issued an arrest warrant for ‘citizenship-related issues’, leading to Sirohiya’s arrest. On Wednesday, the court remanded him to custody for three days while the investigation proceeds.
Issues with Sirohiya’s citizenship were first raised by the media portal Ukeraa.com which, on April 29, reported that a complaint had been registered with the Dhanusha District Court alleging that Sirohiya was an Indian citizen and that he was misusing Nepali citizenship. The plaintiff, however, was not revealed at the time. Later, the plaintiff was revealed to be a member of Rastriya Swatantra Party, the party that Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane leads.
Sirohiya issued statements denying all allegations but Ukeraa continued its reporting. Sirohiya was discovered to have used two citizenship numbers, one from Dhanusha and another from Kathmandu. One of Sirohiya’s citizenship numbers was also found to belong to another person. Sirohiya once again defended himself saying that he had followed all the laws of the land to obtain his citizenship and that if mistakes had been made regarding his citizenship number then it was the responsibility of the issuing authority. Ukeraa is also the same media house that first reported on Home Minister Lamichhane’s dual passports so I don’t believe it has any malafide intentions. It found discrepancies and reported on them, which is fair.
I’ve written a lot about Kantipur Publications in the past but not much about Kailash Sirohiya. There are all kinds of rumors about him but nothing has ever been substantiated so I’d rather not traffic in hearsay. Sirohiya runs the largest and most powerful media house in the country. He is among the most powerful individuals in the country and over the years, he’s made a lot of equally powerful enemies. He’s been sued, arrested, and jailed multiple times. But this time, things look a little different. In the past, it was always clear that the administration was attempting to stifle the media but now, there is another casus belli for his arrest — citizenship issues.
From what I’ve seen, there is cause for suspicion regarding Sirohiya’s citizenship. He has been recorded using two different citizenship numbers, one more frequently than the other. One of those citizenship numbers has also been found to belong to another Nepali man. How that came to happen is definitely something that the courts should look into. But the more sinister allegation here is that Sirohiya, a Madhesi man, is not Nepali. This is the oldest slight in the book against any Madhesi. Despite having lived their entire lives in Nepal, Madhesis are almost always under suspicion of being Indian. Kailash Sirohiya has lived his entire life in Nepal. He’s made his name, his fortune, and his business in Nepal. He has raised his children in Nepal. I’m not saying he is Indian — I don’t believe at all that he is — but at this point, what does it even matter? If Sirohiya is to be investigated, I’m certain other skeletons in his closet could be looked into. This whole citizenship business is a dog whistle to xenophobes.
The fly in the ointment here is Home Minister Lamichhane. Kantipur has been on a crusade against Lamichhane and the back-and-forth between Lamichhane, the former media personality turned politician, and Kantipur, the largest paper in the country, has been ongoing for over a year now. Kantipur amplified Lamichhane’s own issues with his dual passports and has now been hounding him over his ties to embezzlement in financial cooperatives. There’s suspicion that Lamichhane is behind Sirohiya’s arrest. The court does not issue an arrest warrant unless the police or the district attorney demand one, and those latter agencies are either directly under the Home Ministry or consult with the Home Ministry. I doubt a district attorney would’ve unilaterally asked for a warrant for a high-profile individual like Sirohiya without consulting higher-ups. In cruel irony, Sirohiya is now being arrested for citizenship issues when Kantipur’s reporting on Lamichhane’s citizenship issues had cost him the Home Minister position a year ago.
Furthermore, if you recall, just a few weeks ago, there was an audiotape with Sirohiya’s purported involvement in the bribing of judges. Sirohiya was named by the news portal SidhaKura.com, an offshoot of the television program that Lamichhane himself used to run, called Sidha Kura Janata Sita. Nothing ever came of that audiotape, leading me to believe it was all fabricated. For these two events to occur one after another is quite the coincidence, and that too with the involvement of those who either support Lamichhane or are members of his party.
The media fraternity has rallied to Sirohiya’s side and so have the opposition parties, particularly the Nepali Congress. Everyone is decrying his arrest as an attack on press freedom and an attempt by the ruling administration to stifle critical reporting on its ministers. This is what it looks like, at least so far. Even Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, responding to media queries, said that Sirohiya is innocent and will be released soon. So why arrest him in the first place?
This story is still developing so I won’t devote a deep dive to it just yet. Check back next week for more developments.
Gagan Thapa vs Rabi Lamichhane
We might move on from Sirohiya but we still need to discuss Lamichhane. The lower house of the federal Parliament has been in turmoil for weeks now, with the opposition Nepali Congress demanding an investigation into Home Minister Lamichhane’s alleged involvement in embezzlement of funds from financial cooperatives. Lamichhane’s Rastriya Swatantra Party has refused the investigation, arguing that if such an investigation were to be conducted then it should look into all anomalies in the cooperative sector, not just those involving Lamichhane.
Things came to a head on Monday when Lamichhane finally got the chance to address the House regarding the allegations against him. Last week, on May 16, House Speaker Devraj Ghimire had invited Lamichhane to speak but the Congress had barred Lamichhane’s way, leading to a shouting match between Congress and UML MPs. UML chair KP Sharma Oli was seen arguing vehemently with Congress vice-president Dhanraj Gurung. Lamichhane did not get to speak then but he did on Monday, and rather than respond to the allegations, he went on the offensive, saying that certain leaders from the Congress were selling national secrets to foreigners and were embezzling agricultural grants, among other allegations.
Although Lamichhane didn’t name names, he was referring to Congress stalwart Gagan Thapa. Lamichhane’s allegations have little substance, but let me provide some context. The ‘spy’ allegation comes from a leaked 2008 diplomatic cable from the US Embassy published by Wikileaks. The cable refers to Thapa as “a key Embassy contact” which many interpreted as Thapa being on the embassy payroll. But the truth is more banal. All embassies have such key contacts in the political parties. These are people they speak to regularly, people who might be sympathetic to the values of the embassy in question. It does not mean that Thapa is a spy or “selling national secrets”.
The other allegation I can address is about misusing agricultural grants. In 2017, one of Thapa's organizations received a grant from the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade (PACT) to operate a ‘goat farm’. Thapa admitted that he had received the grant but had immediately annulled it after being appointed chair of the Parliamentary Agriculture and Water Resources Committee due to a conflict of interest. PACT confirmed the same through a statement but the allegations have continued to dog Thapa ever since.
Thapa did not take kindly to being attacked like this by Lamichhane. He held a press conference and challenged Lamichhane to probe his entire life. Thapa also alleged that the UML, which is currently the majority partner in the ruling coalition, had struck a deal with Lamichhane where the UML would not support a parliamentary inquiry into Lamichhane while the RSP would in turn not support a parliamentary inquiry into the involvement of senior UML leaders in corruption regarding the Giribandu tea estate (which is something that deserves a deep dive on its own).
So the RSP and the Congress remain at loggerheads, with their most popular politicians — Lamichhane and Thapa — trading barbs one after another. The Congress even attempted to stop Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal from seeking a vote of confidence on Monday. Dahal obtained the vote — his fourth time since becoming prime minister — but was visibly upset at the Congress, warning them of ‘consequences’ which in turn incensed the Congress MPs. While the UML, Dahal’s Maoists, and Lamichhane’s RSP appear to have grown closer together in the face of the barrage of criticism and obstruction by the Congress, they won’t be able to weather so many controversies, the most recent being the arrest of Kailash Sirohiya outlined above. It seems like we are in for another parliamentary session that gets nothing done due to irreconcilable differences between the ruling coalition and the opposition.
There’s a bunch of other news that should have been discussed but I’ve run out of space. So let’s move on to the deep dive now.
But, but before I go, one final thing. My sister-in-law is a young aspiring singer-songwriter and she’s just released her first song. Please do give it a listen. She — and I — would really appreciate it.
The deep dive: Sandeep Lamichhane & Gaushala-26
Last week, on May 15, the Patan High Court acquitted Sandeep Lamichhane of all charges, overturning the Kathmandu District Court’s December 29 verdict. The district court had earlier found Lamichhane guilty of rape and sentenced him to eight years in prison, in addition to a Rs 500,000 fine. Lamichhane duly appealed and the High Court acquitted him.
All of you reading this newsletter probably know who Lamichhane is. No, not Rabi Lamichhane, Sandeep Lamichhane, no relation. Sandeep is a star cricketer, once captain of the national cricket team. In September 2022, a young woman identified only as Gaushala-26 filed a police complaint alleging that Lamichhane had raped her. At the time, Lamichhane was in the West Indies playing in the Caribbean Premier League. He initially promised to return to Nepal and cooperate with the investigation while proclaiming his innocence but then went into hiding, forcing the Nepal Police to ask Interpol for help. Lamichhane eventually returned to Nepal and was arrested immediately upon arrival.
There were two major allegations against Lamichhane — first, that he raped Gaushala-26, and second, that she was a minor at the time. The Kathmandu District Court, in its December 2023 judgment, ruled that Lamichhane had raped Gaushala-26 but that she was not a minor at the time of the incident. Lamichhane thus avoided additional penalties for rape of a minor as outlined in the Criminal Code. The Patan High Court has now effectively reversed that judgment and acquitted Lamichhane. The Cricket Association of Nepal quickly reinstated Lamichhane to the national team. He will now represent Nepal at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the United States and West Indies in June.
I don’t want to scrutinize the Patan High Court’s decision. It feels hypocritical to celebrate one judicial decision and decry another when the decision doesn’t go the way you want it to. Rather, I want to talk about everything else surrounding this case and why so many had expected the Patan court to uphold the district court’s decision and send Lamichhane to jail.
Lamichhane was the golden boy of Nepali cricket, a right-arm leg spin bowler who had racked up accolades for Nepal and international sides. He was named captain of the national men’s team in 2021 at just 21 years of age and was heralded by cricket’s veterans as a player to watch.
In August 2021, Lamichhane met up with a young woman, allegedly a minor, whom he had been flirting with online. She was a fan and excited to meet the man she so admired. Lamichhane, who was supposed to be in a closed camp for training, took her to Nagarkot on a drive. There, he asked to have a few drinks and smoke a hookah with him. She refused. The restaurant staff asked Lamichhane if they should prepare the ‘VIP room’ for him. He never refused, only asking them to come back later. At around 11pm, Gaushala-26 began to ask Lamichhane to take her home, leading him to berate her for not appreciating what he was doing for her. He reluctantly left Nagarkot.
On the way back, Gaushala-26 told Lamichhane that it was very late and that her hostel would interrogate her about where she’d been. Lamichhane replied that he would drop her off at a hotel and leave for the closed camp. But he didn’t do any of that. He booked a single room and did not leave. Gaushala-26 fell asleep and woke up to Lamichhane raping her. He raped her again that night and beat her when she cried.
This is all Gaushala-26’s testimony. You can read it in full here.
Gaushala-26 filed a rape case against Lamichhane two weeks later. But it seemed like a foregone conclusion how the case would go. Gaushala-26 was not wealthy and came from a broken home. She lived in a hostel in Kathmandu while here for studies. Lamichhane was a star celebrity, the ‘jewel of the nation’, with power, wealth, and fame. Lamichhane assembled a crack team of lawyers, including former attorney general Raman Kumar Shrestha. He spent barely any time in jail, freed on bail by the high court despite being sentenced to detention until the final verdict by the district court. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal felicitated him for Nepal’s performance in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers. His fans took out rallies and held up placards at every match proclaiming their undying support.
Meanwhile, Gaushala-26 was branded a whore and a golddigger. Social media was especially vicious. The internet dissected every inch of Gaushala-26’s story, asking why she hadn’t screamed or called while she was being raped, why she hadn’t gone to the police immediately, why she had gone with Lamichhane in the first place if she didn’t want to sleep with him? All questions tossed often in the face of every rape victim like acid on a fresh wound. Inordinate amounts of energy were spent trying to find Gaushala-26’s identity and when it was finally discovered, she and her family were harassed and threatened. Her photos were shared widely and she was called all manner of names. It got so bad that she had to file a formal complaint with the police and people were arrested for sharing her private information.
Gaushala-26 was unwell. Her mental health had been destroyed. She lived in a state of constant fear. She began to have regular panic attacks and in August 2023, days before a scheduled hearing on the case, she attempted suicide.
The hearing on the case was pushed back time and again, almost as if the judiciary wanted Lamichhane to be able to play for Nepal. The Patan High Court had granted Lamichhane bail but barred him from leaving the country. The Supreme Court, however, disagreed and lifted the restriction, allowing him to continue to travel the world representing Nepal internationally. Scotland’s national team showed more spine than most Nepali individuals and institutions, refusing to shake hands with a man accused of rape. Just four days after Gaushala-26 attempted suicide, Lamichhane flew to Pakistan to play cricket.
The power imbalance between the two individuals was — and remains — enormous. While Lamichhane had all of Nepal rooting for him, Gaushala-26 had no one except for a handful of supporters on social media who were relentlessly trolled and attacked themselves. It baffles me when people claim that Gaushala-26 did all this for Lamichhane’s money or other nefarious reasons. Why would anyone want to put themselves through this? Is any amount of money worth being harassed and the lives of you and your loved ones threatened for years on end? If all she wanted was money, she could’ve easily taken the money that I am certain Lamichhane offered and dropped the case. I’m sure he offered more than the paltry Rs 500,000 that the Kathmandu District Court had mandated Lamichhane pay as damages and restitution.
[An aside that came up on Wednesday: the US Embassy denied Lamichhane a visa to go to the US and West Indies to play in the World Cup. Maybe there is some small measure of karma in the world.]
Whatever the court decided, that was the court’s prerogative. But the verdict creates an environment of fear for victims. In a country where women are already afraid to come forward for fear of ostracization and condemnation, decisions like these will only make things worse. Still, the judges were certainly privy to more information than I am and I would like to believe that they truly acted in the interest of justice. I would like to believe that the judiciary doesn’t fail rape victims all the time, that the burden of proof isn’t so much higher when it involves women, that Lamichhane’s star power had nothing to do with the decision, that male athletes aren’t given the benefit of the doubt because of their ‘promising careers’, that judges can be impartial and not let their personal beliefs interfere in their judgment. I would like to believe all of this.
But I don’t.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of Off the Record.
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