A 41-year-old man of Hadikhola reportedly raped his 15-year-old daughter around two months ago. Police said that the girl faced sexual harassment at the hands of her own father repeatedly.

Many of the victims were raped by their own relatives while police have arrested the guilty accused of committing multiple rape assaults, police said.

Meanwhile, more and more heinous cases of rape have started coming to the fore lately, thanks to police’s presence even in rural areas and better access to communication facilities, police said.

Superintendent of Police Prakash Jung Karki said that police are winning the confidence of local peoples. Jhabindra Gyawali, chairman Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), Makawanpur, a NGO working for children’s rights, and supporting child labours, street children, children being sexually exploited and victims of violence, said that discrimination against women by parents and a lack of their security lead to women facing sexual abuses.

Rape cases in Dhading go unchecked

Civil society and rights activists are concerned over rising cases of child rape and violence against women in the district. According to a report made public by the Informal Sector Service Centre (Insec), an organisation working to protect and promote the fundamental rights of people in all sectors, during a programme in the district, six rape and seven attempted rape cases occurred in the past three months alone this fiscal year. Most of these victims are children.

Addressing the programme, Sitaram Prasad Barma, vice chairman of Human Rights Organisation in Dhading, stressed on the need to find out the main causes behind the rise in rape cases to curb such incidents. The participants have said that despite numerous campaigns being launched against violence against women and other women rights-related programmes, the cases of violence against women is on the rise.

They said that the trend of settling incidents of violence against women at the local level instead of filing police cases has worsened the situation. “Not only cases of violence against women, but even rape cases are settled in villages by luring the victims with money,” said women rights activist Radhika Sapkota. She added that pressure from political parties and relatives also play a key role in letting the perpetrators walk scott free.

Married woman gang-raped

A married woman has reportedly been gang-raped at Sanoshree-3 in Bardiya district. A group of three men took turns to rape the 25-year-old inside a forest in the northern area of Armed Police Force (APF) base camp at Kusumba bazaar on Wednesday evening, police said.

The woman was returning home from Kusumba bazaar on a bicycle when she was reportedly gang-raped. Police said that preliminary investigation shows that the woman was called by the perpetrators on her mobile phone and raped. They have identified the perpetrators through details about phone call on the victim’s phone and that they are searching for them, Deputy Superintendent of Police Dipak Basnet said.

The woman, who reportedly fell unconscious following the incident, reported the case to the APF after gaining her conscious some hours later.

Police rescued the woman after being informed of the incident and the victim was taken to the District Hospital later.

The woman, who is said to be traumatised by the incident, is under the care of local Women Service Centre, an NGO. She said that a man named Yam raped her. Police arrested some youths on Wednesday night in connection with the incident and released them later after finding them innocent.

The victim’s family said local resident Dinesh Jaisi took the bicycle the victim was riding when the incident occurred to her house after the incident. Police said they are searching for Jaisi for investigation. The victim’s husband is abroad for employment.