Police arrest fourth youth for harassing girl in West Rukum

Kathmandu: Police have arrested four youths for misbehaving with a teenage girl at a cultural fest (Mela) in West Rukum. Nepal Views published a video showing the girl being harassed by four boys and an audio interview with the victim on Friday. Police arrested the victimizers on Saturday.

All arrested four youths boys are the residents of Bhume Rural municipality. The victim from the Magar community is a resident of Rukumkot-8.

Police arrested Jaya Kumar Pun (40 years old), Bikaash Pun (26 ), Kamal Pun (26), and Bikash Roka (29). They are from Bhume 2, Khawang.

Arrested Jaya Kumar Pun is the brother of Ward Chairperson Narayan Pun. Jayakumar is a former ward member. People’s Representatives had initiated to make the arrested youths free. But they failed.

The incident took place on the 4^th Shrawan at around 2 pm. The boys had surrounded the girl during ‘Jhakri Mela’ in Bhume rural municipality-1.

The girl bite the hands of the victimizers and ran away. But the boys kept following her. She threw stones toward the boys to save herself. The girl complained that even the eyewitness of the incident came forward to save her.

Viral video of the girl being harrased

There is a tradition of celebrating ‘Tiwar-Rakhey’ on Saune Sankranti. On the occasion, all the Jhakri of the village come together and celebrate the festival either on Tuesday or Saturday of the first week of the month of Shrawan at Lugum village, West Rukum. The girl had gone to attend the fest.

Audio interview with the victim

However, this is not the first incident reported. In the last Baisakh, four youths had also forcefully taken a girl in a vehicle in Takshera. Police tried to investigate the case but the rural municipality’s vice chairperson and other local people had protected the victimizers tagging it a ritual.

Nepali version of the story