"He hit me badly, asking me to submit to him" - Rape survivor's harrowing account of Sandeep Lamichhane

A 20-year-old woman, the victim of the rape case against Sandeep Lamichhane, has given a harrowing account of the incident, the events leading up to it, and how she survived victim-blaming. Lamichhane was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail by the Kathmandu District Court for raping the then-18-year-old girl.

In an interview with The Quint, the survivor said she connected with the Nepali cricketer on Snapchat in August 2021. She said she had a tough childhood where her mother, separated from her father, worked as a domestic help to make ends meet.

Initially, Lamichhane sympathized with her story but then insisted on meeting regularly. The woman said she was suspective of his 'egoistic' image but appealed by his stardom, agreed to meet on August 21, 2022. Lamichhane's teammate sent her the location from where the cricketer picked her up and took her to a motel.

The victim alleged that Lamichhane tried to pressure her to drink alcohol and try hookah but she refused and insisted on returning to her hostel.

(Trigger warning: Description of sexual violence)

"He got angry and started humiliating me. He said he had brought a person like me to a motel I could never afford," she said.

Fearing reprimand for missing her hostel curfew, she agreed to go to a hotel on the condition that they'd stay in separate rooms. Lamichhane allegedly tried to convince her to stay in the same room by making excuses. When that didn't work, he waited for her to doze off and forced himself on her.

"He raped me twice that night," the victim said. "My hair was waist-long. He pulled my hair and made me do things I wasn't comfortable with. Unable to stop what was happening to me, I began to cry. He hit me badly, asking me to submit to him. A few days later, when the shock had started wearing off, the first thing I did was cut my hair."

The victim added that Lamichhane threatened her to not talk about the incident. On September 6, 2022, she and her brother filed a complaint.

"No one thought about me" - Rape survivor on Nepalese celebrating Sandeep Lamichhane

Lamichhane was suspended as Nepal's captain and arrested on October 6, 2022. However, a division bench of High Court judges released him on bail in January 2023 and barred him from traveling. During this time, the survivor was victim-blamed and questioned about why she agreed to meet him and go to the hotel.

"The biggest blow for me came the court decided to grant him bail... It was disturbing to watch that the day he came out of judicial custody, he was celebrated as a hero with garlands. I saw people sympathising with him and presenting him as the victim. No one thought about me. It begs the question of the kind of society we are living in," she said.

While announcing his conviction, the court noted Lamichhane "had raped the victim by taking advantage of her poor economic condition." The cricketer's lawyer, meanwhile, pledged to appeal the decision in a higher court.