Exactly a year ago, we had exclusively reported a terrifying story about how a Pastor in Tukvar had been continuously raping a 12-year-old minor, who would live with them, for years until she got pregnant and the truth surfaced.
Following the incident, the police tried to respond quickly and arrest the Pastor, but the cunning culprit had already absconded. The Police, however, had arrested his wife for not informing the Police about the incident even when she was in full knowledge of it.
There began the game of hide and seek, where the Police put all their resource at work to grab the paedophile. The efforts finally showed the result, exactly after a year, when the Pastor was grabbed by them.
We are extremely happy to share with you all that Sishir Rai was detained yesterday by the Nepal Police at Tapleygunj area after the Darjeeling Police had shared his picture with them. The Police immediately sent a team to bring back the culprit. The Pastor is in Police custody right now and a charge sheet will be filed soon by the Investigating Officer.
While no other media house had reported the sensitive issue last year, we are extremely proud that we chose to do a detailed reporting of it, and it gives us immense joy to hear that the culprit is finally behind the bars after a long wait of exactly a year. We congratulate everyone working behind the case, specially Marg NGO, for putting all the effort that it took. We also hope that the Pastor is subjected to rigorous punishment under the POSCO act for the heinous crime.
Well done police for persistent investigation and media for reporting the crime and arrest so that justice is served. Strong message to perpetrators and we as care givers to be aware of abuse and protect our children. While this has happened and keeps happening in every country, caste or religion I am personally saddened that in this case it happens to be a Christian and that too a “pastor’. It just goes to show that no human is exempt from temptation and we cannot put a blind faith on religious leaders. Pastors and church leaders need to be appointed as per strict biblical guidelines and not to be taken lightly. Let this be a big lesson to religious leaders that they can no longer abuse vulnerable children under their wing and think they can get away with it. Let us make this awful incident as an awareness of such crimes and make this world a safer place for our children.
Great resolve by the Police in nabbing the culprit and very high appreciation to The DC for following up on this forgotten incident. Hopefully the accused shall be prosecuted accordingly and convicted expressly as per the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. Not POSCO by the way DC.
I would prefer the word “captured” to replace “grab”. Secondly, Tapleygunj is a wrong name, there is no such place in Nepal. The correct name of the place would be “TAPLEJUNG” or you can write “Tapleyjung”. Places with “Gunj” names are in Terai area, such as Bir-Gunj, Gauri-Gunj, Nepal-Gunj. Tapleyjung is in the eastern hills.